Digital Commons Network^™

What Factors Influence Hiv Testing? Modeling Preference Heterogeneity Using Latent Classes And Class-Independent Random Effects, Jan Ostermann Ph.D., Brian P. Flaherty, Derek S. Brown, Bernard Njau, Amy M. Hobbie, Tara B. Mtuy, Max Masnick, Axel C. Mühlbacher, Nathan M. Thielman

Faculty Publications

Efforts to eliminate the HIV epidemic will require increased HIV testing rates among high-risk populations. To inform the design of HIV testing interventions, a discrete choice experiment (DCE) with six policy-relevant attributes of HIV testing options elicited the testing preferences of 300 female barworkers and 440 male Kilimanjaro mountain porters in northern Tanzania. Surveys were administered between September 2017 and July 2018. Participants were asked to complete 12 choice tasks, each involving first- and second-best choices from 3 testing options. DCE responses were analyzed using a random effects latent class logit (RELCL) model, in which the latent classes summarize common …

A Cdzntese Gamma Spectrometer Trained By Deep Convolutional Neural Network For Radioisotope Identification, Sandeep K. Chaudhuri, Joshua W. Kleppinger, Ritwik Nag, Kaushik Roy, Rojina Panta, Forest Agostinelli, Amit Sheth, Utpal N. Roy, Ralph B. James, Krishna C. Mandal

Publications

We report the implementation of a deep convolutional neural network to train a high-resolution room-temperature CdZnTeSe based gamma ray spectrometer for accurate and precise determination of gamma ray energies for radioisotope identification. The prototype learned spectrometer consists of a NI PCI 5122 fast digitizer connected to a pre-amplifier to recognize spectral features in a sequence of data. We used simulated preamplifier pulses that resemble actual data for various gamma photon energies to train a CNN on the equivalent of 90 seconds worth of data and validated it on 10 seconds worth of simulated data.

Through The Looking Glass: Longitudinal Evidence Providing New Insight For Motor Competence And Health, Lisa M. Barnett, E. Kipling Webster, Ryan M. Hulteen, An V. De Meester, Nadia C. Valentini, Matthieu Lenoir, Caterina Pesce, Nancy Getchell, Vitor P. Lopes, Leah E. Robinson, Ali Brian, Luis P. Rodrigues

Faculty Publications

Introduction In 2008, a conceptual model explaining the role of motor competence (MC) in children’s physical activity (PA), weight status, perceived MC and health-related fitness was published.

Objective The purpose of the current review was to systematically compile mediation, longitudinal and experimental evidence in support of this conceptual model.

Methods This systematic review (registered with PROSPERO on 28 April 2020) was conducted in accordance with the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) statement. Separate searches were undertaken for each pathway of interest (final search 8 November 2019) using CINAHL Complete, ERIC, Medline (OVID), PsycINFO, Web of Science …

Ocean Regime Shift Is Driving Collapse Of The North Atlantic Right Whale Population, Erin L. Meyer-Gutbrod, Charles H. Greene, Kimberley T.A. Davies, David G. Johns

Faculty Publications

Ocean warming linked to anthropogenic climate change is impacting the ecology of marine species around the world. In 2010, the Gulf of Maine and Scotian Shelf regions of the Northwest Atlantic underwent an unprecedented regime shift. Forced by climate-driven changes in the Gulf Stream, warm slope waters entered the region and created a less favorable foraging environment for the endangered North Atlantic right whale population. By mid-decade, right whales had shifted their late spring/summer foraging grounds from the Gulf of Maine and the western Scotian Shelf to the Gulf of St. Lawrence. The population also began exhibiting unusually high …

Bright And Blind Spots Of Water Research In Latin America And The Caribbean, Alyssa J. Devincentis, Hervé Guillon, Romina Díaz Gómez, Noelle K. Patterson, Francine Van Den Brandeler, Srthur Koehl, Pablo Ortiz-Partida, Laura E. Garza-Díaz, Jennifer Gamez-Rodríguez, Erfan Goharian, Samuel Sandoval Solis

Faculty Publications

Water resources management in Latin America and the Caribbean is particularly threatened by climatic, economic, and political pressures. To assess the region's ability to manage water resources, we conducted an unprecedented literature review of over 20 000 multilingual research articles using machine learning and an understanding of the socio-hydrologic landscape. Results reveal that the region's vulnerability to water-related stresses, and drivers such as climate change, is compounded by research blind spots in niche topics (reservoirs and risk assessment) and subregions (Caribbean nations), as well as by its reliance on an individual country (Brazil). A regional bright spot, Brazil, produces well-rounded …

Rgb Indices And Canopy Height Modelling For Mapping Tidal Marsh Biomass From A Small Unmanned Aerial System, Grayson R. Morgan, Cuizhen Wang, James T. Morris

Faculty Publications

Coastal tidal marshes are essential ecosystems for both economic and ecological reasons. They necessitate regular monitoring as the effects of climate change begin to be manifested in changes to marsh vegetation healthiness. Small unmanned aerial systems (sUAS) build upon previously established remote sensing techniques to monitor a variety of vegetation health metrics, including biomass, with improved flexibility and affordability of data acquisition. The goal of this study was to establish the use of RGB-based vegetation indices for mapping and monitoring tidal marsh vegetation (i.e., Spartina alterniflora) biomass. Flights over tidal marsh study sites were conducted using a multi-spectral camera on …

Dependence On Humidity And Aerosol Composition Of The Gas-Particle Partitioning Of Weakly And Moderately Polar Vocs, Jeonghyeon Ahn, Guiying Rao, Eric P. Vejerano

Faculty Publications

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) dominate the class of pollutants that accumulate in the atmosphere and indoors. Assessing the gas-particle partitioning of VOCs is important to determine their fate, transport, and adverse health impacts. This work is a companion to our earlier study on the temperature dependence of VOC partitioning. Here, we report our measurement of the gas-particle partition coefficient (Kp) for weakly polar (trichloroethylene, TCE) and moderately polar (n-butanol, n-BuOH) VOCs under varying relative humidity (RH) levels onto organic and inorganic aerosols. Kp of TCE was four to five orders of magnitude lower than those …

Assessing Oral Language When Screening Multilingual Children For Learning Disabilities In Reading, J. Marc Goodrich, Lisa A. Fitton Ph.D., Jessica Chan, C. Jamie Davis

Faculty Publications

Multilingual children represent a rapidly growing population of students in U.S. schools. However, identification of language and learning disabilities for students from different linguistic backgrounds is complex, leading to frequent misidentification of multilingual learners for special education. This article provides guidance on how special education teachers, speech-language pathologists, and other practitioners (e.g., school psychologists) can utilize each other’s expertise to accurately assess language and literacy skills of multilingual learners. Five key lessons learned from research on identification of language disorders are presented, along with discussion of why these are important when screening multilingual children for learning disabilities in reading. Specifically, …

Creation Of A Cip Method For The Heat Exchangers At Rolls-Royce, Melanie Howe, Austin Williams, Caroline Dempsey, Bethany Fralick

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

Rolls-Royce produces various engines which must be tested prior to their distribution to ensure a high-quality product. The manufacturing plant contains four test cells where the engines can be subjected to high levels of torque and extreme temperatures. A heat exchanger is necessary in this testing system and over time, unwanted waste accumulates on the system’s plates. The team is tasked with developing and implementing a system mounted on a mobile cart which can provide data to determine whether the plates need to be cleaned. For this cleaning system to work, it must fully saturate the heat exchanger in cleaning …

Political Socialization In Teenagers: To What Extent Are Socialization Agents Associated With The Political Dispositions Of Adolescents Aged 14–18 ?, Luci Green

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

Partially Speaker-Dependent Automatic Speech Recognition Using Deep Neural Networks, Christopher J. Li, Michelle Spigner

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Accuracy Of Artificial Intelligence (Ai) Chatbots In Telemedicine, Robert K. Swick

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

2021 Scas Annual Meeting Program And Bulletin

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Effect Of Ayurvedic Plant Extracts-- Mucuna Pruriens And Brassica Oleracea--On The Delay Of Motor Symptoms In Pink1 Drosophila Melanogaster: A Model Of Parkinson's Disease, Sanjana Parise

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

The Relationship Between Personality Traits And The Strength Of Anxiety Symptoms, Kate Soderlund

Journal of the South Carolina Academy of Science

No abstract provided.

‘Access Necessitates Being Seen’: Queer Visibility And Intersectional Embodiment Within The Health Information Practices Of Queer Community Leaders, Travis L. Wagner, Vanessa Kitzie

Faculty Publications

Navigating healthcare infrastructures is particularly challenging for queer-identifying individuals, with significant barriers emerging around stigma and practitioner ignorance. Further intersecting, historically marginalised identities such as one’s race, age or ability exacerbate such engagement with healthcare, particularly the access to and use of reliable and appropriate health information. We explore the salience of one’s queer identity relative to other embodied identities when navigating health information and care for themselves and their communities. Thirty semi-structured interviews with queer community leaders from South Carolina inform our discussion of the role one’s queer visibility plays relational to the visibility of other identities. We find …

Knowledge Assessment Of Anti-Snake Venom Among Healthcare Practitioners In Northern Nigeria, Auwal A. Bala, Abubakar Jatau, Ismaeel Yunusa Ph.D., Mustapha Mohammed, Al-Kassim H. Mohammed, Abubakar M. Isa, Abubakar S. Wada, Kabiru A. Gulma, Inuwa Bello, Sani Malami

Faculty Publications

Introduction: Anti-snake venom (ASV) is the standard therapy for the management of snakebite envenoming (SBE). Therefore, the knowledge of ASV among healthcare practitioners (HCPs) is essential for achieving optimal clinical outcomes in snakebite management. This study aimed to assess knowledge of ASV among the HCPs in northern Nigeria.

Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study involving eligible HCPs from different healthcare settings in northern Nigeria. The participants were recruited into the study using a combination of online (via Google Form) and face-to-face paper-based survey methods. The ASV knowledge of the respondents was measured using a validated anti-snake venom knowledge assessment tool …

Cortical Microstructural Changes Associated With Treated Aphasia Recovery, Allen J. Chang, Janina Wilmonskoetter, Julius Fridriksson, Emilie R. Mckinnon, Lorelei P. Johnson, Alexandra Basilakos, Jens H. Jensen, Chris Rorden, Leonardo Bonilha

Faculty Publications

Objectives

To investigate the hypothesis that language recovery in post-stroke aphasia is associated with structural brain changes.

Methods

We evaluated whether treatment-induced improvement in naming is associated with reorganization of tissue microstructure within residual cortical regions. To this end, we performed a retrospective longitudinal treatment study using comprehensive language-linguistic assessments and diffusion MRI sequences optimized for the assessment of complex microstructure (diffusional kurtosis imaging) to evaluate the relationship between language treatment response and cortical changes in 26 individuals with chronic stroke-induced aphasia. We employed elastic net statistical models controlling for baseline factors including age, sex, and time since the stroke, …

Extended Search For Supernovalike Neutrinos In Nova Coincident With Ligo/Virgo Detections, M. A. Acero, P. Adamson, L. Aliaga, N. Anfimov, A. Antoshkin, E. Arrieta-Diaz, L. Asquith, A. Aurisano, A. Back, C. Backhouse, M. Baird, N. Balashov, P. Baldi, B. A. Bambah, S. Bashar, K. Bays, R. Bernstein, V. Bhatnagar, B. Bhuyan, J. Bian, Roberto Petti, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

A search is performed for supernovalike neutrino interactions coincident with 76 gravitational wave events detected by the LIGO/Virgo Collaboration. For 40 of these events, full readout of the time around the gravitational wave is available from the NOvA Far Detector. For these events, we set limits on the fluence of the sum of all neutrino flavors of F < 7(4) × 10¹⁰ cm⁻² at 90% C.L. assuming energy and time distributions corresponding to the Garching supernova models with masses 9.6ð27Þ M_^⊙. Under the hypothesis that any given gravitational wave event was caused by a supernova, this corresponds to a distance …

Effect Of An Antenatal Lifestyle Intervention On Dietary Inflammatory Index And Its Associations With Maternal And Fetal Outcomes: A Secondary Analysis Of The Pears Trial, Sarah Louise Killen, Catherine M. Phillips, Anna Delahunt, Cara A. Yelverton, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Maria A. Kennelly, Martina Cronin, John Mehegan, Fionnuala M. Mcauliffe

Faculty Publications

We investigated the effect of an antenatal lifestyle intervention of a low-glycaemic index (GI) diet and physical activity on energy-adjusted dietary inflammatory index (E-DIITM) and explored its relationship with maternal and child health in women with overweight and obesity. This was a secondary analysis of 434 mother−child pairs from the Pregnancy Exercise and Nutrition Study (PEARS) trial in Dublin, Ireland. E-DII^TM scores were calculated for early (10–16 weeks) and late (28 weeks) pregnancy. Outcomes included lipids, inflammation markers, insulin resistance, mode of delivery, infant size, pre-eclampsia, and gestational diabetes. T-tests were used to assess changes in E-DII^TM. …

Independent Contributions Of Structural And Functional Connectivity: Evidence From A Stroke Model, Lynsey M. Keator, Grigori Yourganov, Alexandra Basilakos, Argye E. Hillis, Gregory Hickok, Leonardo Bonilha, Chris Rorden, Julius Fridriksson

Faculty Publications

Altered functional connectivity is related to severity of language impairment in poststroke aphasia. However, it is not clear whether this finding specifically reflects loss of functional coherence, or more generally, is related to decreased structural connectivity due to cortical necrosis. The aim of the current study was to investigate this issue by factoring out structural connectivity from functional connectivity measures and then relating the residual data to language performance poststroke. Ninety-seven participants with a history of stroke were assessed using language impairment measures (Auditory Verbal Comprehension and Spontaneous Speech scores from the Western Aphasia Battery-Revised) and MRI (structural, diffusion tensor …

Adaptation Of The Agency For Healthcare Research And Quality’S ‘Hospital Survey On Patient Safety Culture’ To The Bosnia And Herzegovina Context, Šehad Draganović, Guido Offermanns, Rachel E. Davis

Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVES: Measuring staff perspectives on patient safety culture (PSC) can identify areas of concern that, if addressed, could lead to improvements in healthcare. To date, there is no validated measure to assess PSC that has been tested and adapted for use in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This research addresses the gap in the evidence through the psychometric assessment of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality's: 'Hospital Survey on Patient Safety Culture' (HSOPSC), to determine its suitability for the health system in BiH. SETTING: Nine hospitals. PARTICIPANTS: Healthcare professionals (n=1429); nurse (n=823), doctors (n=328), other clinical personnel (n=111), non-clinical personnel …

Racism As Public Health Crisis: Assessment And Review Of Municipal Declarations And Resolutions Across The United States, Dara D. Mendez, Jewel Scott Phd, Rn, Fnp-C, Linda Adodoadji, Christina Toval, Monica Mcneil, Mahima Sindhu

Faculty Publications

Racism in the United States has been cited as a key driver of racial health inequities. Racism as a public health crisis has been in the forefront, particularly with respect to state and municipal governments that have developed legislation, resolutions, and declarations. This policy brief includes a review of resolutions and declarations across the US related to Racism as a Public Health Crisis through the end of September 2020. There were 125 resolutions reviewed for content related to the history of racism, reference to racial health equity data, content related to action steps or implementation, and any accompanying funding or …

Racism As Public Health Crisis: Assessment And Review Of Municipal Declarations And Resolutions Across The United States, Dara D. Mendez, Jewel Scott Phd, Rn, Fnp-C, Linda Adodoadji, Christina Toval, Monica Mcneil, Mahima Sindhu

Faculty Publications

Racism in the United States has been cited as a key driver of racial health inequities. Racism as a public health crisis has been in the forefront, particularly with respect to state and municipal governments that have developed legislation, resolutions, and declarations. This policy brief includes a review of resolutions and declarations across the US related to Racism as a Public Health Crisis through the end of September 2020. There were 125 resolutions reviewed for content related to the history of racism, reference to racial health equity data, content related to action steps or implementation, and any accompanying funding or …

Individualized Response To Semantic Versus Phonological Aphasia Therapies In Stroke, Sigfus Kristinsson, Alexandra Basilakos, Jordan Elm, Leigh Ann Spell, Leonardo Bonilha, Chris Rorden, Dirk Den Ouden Ph.D., Christy Cassarly, Souvik Sen, Argye Hillis, Gregory Hickok, Julius Fridriksson Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Attempts to personalize aphasia treatment to the extent where it is possible to reliably predict individual response to a particular treatment have yielded inconclusive results. The current study aimed to (i) compare the effects of phonologically versus semantically focussed naming treatment and (ii) examine biographical and neuropsychological baseline factors predictive of response to each treatment. One hundred and four individuals with chronic post-stroke aphasia underwent 3 weeks of phonologically focussed treatment and 3 weeks of semantically focussed treatment in an unblinded cross-over design. A linear mixed-effects model was used to compare the effects of treatment type on proportional change in …

Spatial Disparities Of Covid-19 Cases And Fatalities In United States Counties, Sarah L. Jackson, Sahar Derakhshan, Leah Blackwood, Logan Lee, Qian Huang, Margot Habets, Susan L. Cutter

Faculty Publications

This paper examines the spatial and temporal trends in county-level COVID-19 cases and fatalities in the United States during the first year of the pandemic (January 2020–January 2021). Statistical and geospatial analyses highlight greater impacts in the Great Plains, Southwestern and Southern regions based on cases and fatalities per 100,000 population. Significant case and fatality spatial clusters were most prevalent between November 2020 and January 2021. Distinct urban–rural differences in COVID-19 experiences uncovered higher rural cases and fatalities per 100,000 population and fewer government mitigation actions enacted in rural counties. High levels of social vulnerability and the absence of mitigation …

12 C(E,E'Pn) Measurements Of Short Range Correlations In The Tensor-To-Scalar Interaction Transition Region, I. Korover, J. R. Pybus, A. Schmidt, F. Hauenstein, M. Duer, O. Hen, E. Piasetzky, L. B. Weinstein, D. W. Higinbotham, S. Adhikari, K. Adhikari, M. J. Amaryan, Giovanni Angelini, H. Atac, L. Barion, M. Battaglieri, A. Beck, I. Bedlinkskiy, Fatiha Benmokhtar, Steffen Strauch, Ralf W. Gothe, Krishna Chandra Neupane, Et. Al.

Faculty Publications

High-momentum configurations of nucleon pairs at short-distance are probed using measurements of the C-12(e, e' p) and C-12(e, e' pN) reactions (where N is either n or p), at high-Q(2) and x(B) > 1.1. The data span a missing-momentum range of 300-1000 MeV/c and are predominantly sensitive to the transition region of the strong nuclear interaction from a Tensor to Scalar interaction. The data are well reproduced by theoretical calculations using the Generalized Contact Formalism with both chiral and phenomenological nucleon-nucleon (NN) interaction models. This agreement suggests that the measured high missing-momentum protons up to 1000 MeV/c predominantly belong to short-ranged …

Explicit And Implicit Attitudes Towards Prisoners: The Impact Of Level Of Contact, Samantha Peka

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: Prisoners and ex-prisoners face overt and covert forms of prejudice and discrimination (e.g., barriers to employment, housing, healthcare, voting rights). Fueling this prejudice and discrimination are implicit and explicit negative attitudes towards prisoners. Negative implicit and explicit attitudes play a major role into successful reintegration into society post-release. The purpose of this study was to examine if exposure to prisoners/ex-prisoners and political affiliation influence implicit and explicit attitudes.

Method: Participants (n = 73) completed a prisoner Implicit Association Test (IAT). Then, participants completed the explicit measures, Social Distance Scale, Attribute Questionnaire, Belief in Redeemability, Attitudes Towards Prisoners, and Prosociality …

The Effect Of Feedback On State Narcissism, Ian C. Kloss

USC Aiken Psychology Theses

Objective: Prior research suggests that grandiose and vulnerable narcissists differ from one another in their responses to various threats—among these results is a finding suggesting individuals displaying grandiose narcissism are more likely to report negative mood states following an imaginal achievement failure, while individuals displaying vulnerable narcissism report more negative mood following an imagined romantic rejection. Further, a body of literature within the field of narcissism examines whether grandiose and vulnerable narcissism are better conceived as stable traits or as states that may fluctuate within an individual. This study sought to determine whether state grandiose and vulnerable narcissism might differ …

Play, Chat, Date, Learn, And Suffer? Merton’S Law Of Unintended Consequences And Digital Technology Failures, Mark Rosenbaum, Gabby Walters, Karen Edwards J.D., Claudia Gonzalez, Germán Contreras Ramírez

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.