Digital Commons Network^™

Systematic Overexpression Of Genes Encoded By Mycobacteriophage Waterfoul Reveals Novel Inhibitors Of Mycobacterial Growth, Danielle Heller, Isabel Amaya, Aleem Mohamed, Ilzat Ali, Dmitri Mavrodi, Padraig Deighan, Viknesh Sivanathan

Faculty Publications

Bacteriophages represent an enormous reservoir of novel genes, many of which are unrelated to existing entries in public databases and cannot be assigned a predicted function. Characterization of these genes can provide important insights into the intricacies of phage–host interactions and may offer new strategies to manipulate bacterial growth and behavior. Overexpression is a useful tool in the study of gene-mediated effects, and we describe here the construction of a plasmid-based overexpression library of a complete set of genes for Waterfoul, a mycobacteriophage closely related to those infecting clinically important strains of Mycobacterium tuberculosis and/or Mycobacterium abscessus. The arrayed …

Using Narrative Cycles To Advance Teacher Educators’ Emotional Work And Practice In An Era Of Affective Polarization, Ramona Maile Cutri, Eric Ruiz Bybee, Erin Feinauer Whiting

Faculty Publications

‘Affective polarization’ refers to the amount of negativity that people feel for those who belong to a political party other than their own. This self-study reports on our particular use of a narrative cycle model and documents its validity as a tool for doing the emotional work of exploring contradictions in one’s practice without the pressure of engaging in public emotional discourses. We focused on the contra- diction between our intention to teach anti-oppressive teacher edu- cation and inadvertently silencing students who exhibited affective polarization. Our narrative inquiry analysis documented patterns of our thoughts, feelings, and behaviors that we assert …

Food Insecurity And Depression Among Us Adults: Nhanes 2005–2016, Nicole Reeder, Terezie Tolar-Peterson, R. Hartford Bailey, Wen-Hsing Cheng, Marion W. Evans Jr.

Faculty Publications

A growing body of evidence suggests that food insecurity is associated with adverse mental health outcomes such as depression and anxiety. In this study, the relationship between food insecurity and depression was examined using data from the 2005–2016 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES). Food insecurity was assessed with the 18-item United States Food Security Survey Module with zero affirmative responses indicating high food security, 1 or 2 affirmative responses indicating marginal food security, and ≥3 affirmative responses indicating food insecurity. Depression was assessed with the Patient Health Questionnaire-9 with scores ≥10 indicating depression. Data were analyzed from 28,448 …

Social Life Of Females With Persistent Covid-19 Symptoms: A Qualitative Study, Atefeh Aghaei, Ran Zhang, Slone Taylor, Cheuk-Chi Tam, Chih-Hsiang Yang, Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Persistent COVID-19 symptoms (long COVID) may bring challenges to long haulers' social lives. Females may endure more profound impacts given their special social roles and existing structural inequality. This study explores the effects of long COVID on the social life of female long haulers. We conducted semi-structured interviews via Zoom between April and June 2021 with 15 female long haulers in the United States, purposely recruited from Facebook and Slack groups and organization websites related to long COVID. Interviews were audio-recorded and transcribed verbatim with consent. The interview data were managed using MAXQDA and examined by thematic analysis. Long COVID …

Mir-489 Confines Uncontrolled Estrogen Signaling Through A Negative Feedback Mechanism And Regulates Tamoxifen Resistance In Breast Cancer, Mithil Soni, Ozge Saatci, Gourab Gupta, Yogin Patel, Manikanda Raja Keerthi Raja, Jie Li, Xinfeng Liu, Peisheng Xu Ph.D., Hongjun Wang, Daping Fan, Ozgur Sahin, Hexin Chen

Faculty Publications

Approximately 75% of diagnosed breast cancer tumors are estrogen-receptor-positive tumors and are associated with a better prognosis due to response to hormonal therapies. However, around 40% of patients relapse after hormonal therapies. Genomic analysis of gene expression profiles in primary breast cancers and tamoxifen-resistant cell lines suggested the potential role of miR-489 in the regulation of estrogen signaling and development of tamoxifen resistance. Our in vitro analysis showed that loss of miR-489 expression promoted tamoxifen resistance, while overexpression of miR-489 in tamoxifen-resistant cells restored tamoxifen sensitivity. Mechanistically, we found that miR-489 is an estrogen-regulated miRNA that negatively regulates estrogen receptor …

Latent Class Analysis Of Polysubstance Use And Sexual Risk Behaviors Among Men Who Have Sex With Men Attending Sexual Health Clinics In Mexico City, Rosibel Rodríguez-Bolaños, Ricardo Baruch-Dominguez, Edna Aril, Elsa Yunes-Díaz, Leonor Rivera-Rivera, Lizeth Cruz-Jiménez, Jim F. Thrasher Ph.D., Ma, Ms, Alan G. Nyitray, Eduardo Lazcando-Ponce

Faculty Publications

Men who have sex with men (MSM) are more likely to use drugs and other substances compared to their heterosexual peers. No studies have evaluated patterns of substance use among MSM adults in Mexico. We used latent class analysis (LCA) to identify MSM subgroups with specific substance use patterns and their associations with sexual behaviors. Methods: Data from 1850 adult MSM were collected at HIV clinics in Mexico City between September 2018 and December 2019. The structural equation modeling approach was used to estimate a LC model to identify patterns of substance use by self-report of substance use (i.e., cigarette …

Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained: A Meta-Analysis Of Ceo Overconfidence, Strategic Risk Taking, And Performance, Barbara Burkhard, Charlotta Sirén, Marc Van Essen, Dietmar Grichnik, Dean A. Shepherd

Faculty Publications

Although overconfidence is acknowledged as one of the most common managerial decision-making biases, much uncertainty remains about its implications for firm performance. To resolve this uncertainty, we investigate how and why CEO overconfidence is related to firm performance using meta-analytic techniques on a sample of 199 studies. In particular, relying on behavioral decision theory, we develop alternative hypotheses regarding the impact of CEO overconfidence on firm performance. Contrary to the conventional belief that CEO overconfidence is detrimental, this study reveals that CEO overconfidence is, on average, beneficial for firm performance. Drawing on recent refinements of upper echelons theory and theoretical …

Mhealth Video Gaming For Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among College Men-Qualitative Inquiry For Development, Gabrielle Darville-Sanders, Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, Michael Stellefson, Yu Hao Lee, Jann Macinnes, R. Morgan Pigg, Rebeccah Mercado, Cheryl Gaddis

Faculty Publications

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. Persistent infection with HPV can cause various cancers; however, HPV vaccination can prevent infections associated with high risk, cancerous strains of the virus. As it relates to HPV, college age men have been identified as one of the catch-up vaccination groups. Among college age men, gaming is an extremely popular extracurricular activity. Further, video games have emerged as a popular public health intervention tool. Therefore, this study aims to collect qualitative data on how to develop, implement and evaluate the effectiveness of a gaming …

School And Community Drivers Of Child Diets In Two Arab Cities: The Scale Protocol And Innovative Tools To Assess Children’S Food Environments, Hala Ghattas Ph.D., Zeina Jamaluddine, Aline Semaan, Nehmat El-Helou, Gloria Safadi, Tatiana Elghossain, Christelle Akl, Shady Elbassuoni, Ali Chalak, Jalila El Ati, The Scale Research Group

Faculty Publications

Background

In the context of the rapid nutrition transition experienced by middle-income countries of the Arab region, children and adolescent’s food choices and dietary behaviors are early risk factors for the development of non-communicable diseases. Assessment of factors influencing food choices among this age group is challenging and is usually based on self-reported data, which are prone to information and recall bias. As the popularity of technologies and video gaming platforms increases, opportunities arise to use these tools to collect data on variables that affect food choice, dietary intake, and associated outcomes. This protocol paper describes the SCALE study (School …

4d Spatio-Temporal Electric Field Characterization Of Ultrashort Light Pulses Undergoing Filamentation, Lana Neoričić, Christoph Jusko, Sara Mikaelsson, Chen Guo, Miguel Miranda, Shiyang Zhong, Felix Garmirian, Balazs Major, Jeffrey M. Brown, Mette B. Gaarde, Arnaud Couairon, Uwe Morgner, Milutin Kovačev, Cord L. Arnold

Faculty Publications

We present an experimental method capable of capturing the complete spatiotemporal dynamics of filamenting ultrashort laser pulses. By employing spatially resolved Fourier transform spectrometry in combination with the capability to terminate the filament at any length, we can follow the nonlinear dynamics in four dimensions, i.e. the transverse domain, time and filament length. Our method thus not only enables the full characterization of the filamentation process throughout its evolution, but also allows to identify and select laser pulses with desired parameters.

Three Dimensions Of Covid-19 Risk Perceptions And Their Socioeconomic Correlates In The United States: A Social Media Analysis, Shan Qiao Ph.D., Zhenlong Li Ph.D., Chen Liang Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D., Caroline Rudisill Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Social media analysis provides an alternate approach to monitoring and understanding risk perceptions regarding COVID-19 over time. Our current understandings of risk perceptions regarding COVID-19 do not disentangle the three dimensions of risk perceptions (perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and negative emotion) as the pandemic has evolved. Data are also limited regarding the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on COVID-19-related risk perceptions over time. To address these knowledge gaps, we extracted tweets regarding COVID-19-related risk perceptions and developed indicators for the three dimensions of risk perceptions based on over502 million geotagged tweets posted by over 4.9 million Twitter users …

Three Dimensions Of Covid-19 Risk Perceptions And Their Socioeconomic Correlates In The United States: A Social Media Analysis, Shan Qiao, Zhenlong Li, Caroline Rudsill

Faculty Publications

Social media analysis provides an alternate approach to monitoring and understanding risk perceptions regarding COVID-19 over time. Our current understandings of risk perceptions regarding COVID-19 do not disentangle the three dimensions of risk perceptions (perceived susceptibility, perceived severity, and negative emotion) as the pandemic has evolved. Data are also limited regarding the impact of social determinants of health (SDOH) on COVID-19-related risk perceptions over time. To address these knowledge gaps, we extracted tweets regarding COVID-19-related risk perceptions and developed indicators for the three dimensions of risk perceptions based on over 502 million geotagged tweets posted by over 4.9 million Twitter …

Too Much Of A Good Thing? A Governing Knowledge Commons Review Of Abundance In Context, Brett M. Frischmann, Michael J. Madison, Madelyn R. Sanfilippo, Katherine J. Strandburg

Faculty Publications

The economics of abundance, along with the sociology of abundance, the law of abundance, and so forth, should be re-framed, linked, and situated in a common context for empirical rather than conceptual research. Abundance may seem to be a new, big thing, between anxiety over information overload, Big Data, and related technological disruptions. But scholars know that abundance is an ancient phenomenon, which only seemed to disappear as twentieth century social science focused on scarcity instead. Restoring the study of abundance, and figuring out how to solve the problems that abundance might create, means shedding disciplinary blinders and going back …

Age-Related Changes In Diffuse Optical Tomography Sensitivity Profiles From Childhood To Adulthood, Xiaoxue Fu Ph.D., John E. Richards

Faculty Publications

Significance: Diffuse optical tomography (DOT) uses near-infrared light spectroscopy to measure changes in cerebral hemoglobin concentration. Anatomical interpretations of the brain location that generates the hemodynamic signal require accurate descriptions of the DOT sensitivity to the underlying cortex. DOT sensitivity profiles are different in infants compared with adults. However, the descriptions of DOT sensitivity profiles from early childhood to adulthood are lacking despite the continuous head and brain development.

Aim: We aim to investigate age-related differences in DOT sensitivity profiles in individuals aged from 2 to 34 years with narrow age ranges of 0.5 or 1 year.

Approach: We implemented …

Khsrp Loss Increases Neuronal Growth And Synaptic Transmission And Alters Memory Consolidation Through Rna Stabilization, Sarah L. Olguin, Priyanka Patel, Courtney N. Buchanan, Michela Dell'orco, Amy S. Gardiner, Robert Cole, Lauren S. Vaughn, Anitha Sundararajan, Joann Mudge, Andrea M. Allen, Pavel Ortinski, Jonathan L. Brigman, Jeffery L. Twiss, Nora L. Perrone-Bizzozero

Faculty Publications

KH-type splicing regulatory protein (KHSRP) regulates levels of several neuronal mRNAs linked to nervous system development and function.

The KH-type splicing regulatory protein (KHSRP) is an RNA-binding protein linked to decay of mRNAs with AU-rich elements. KHSRP was previously shown to destabilize Gap43 mRNA and decrease neurite growth in cultured embryonic neurons. Here, we have tested functions of KHSRP in vivo. We find upregulation of 1460 mRNAs in neocortex of adult Khsrp(-/-) mice, of which 527 bind to KHSRP with high specificity. These KHSRP targets are involved in pathways for neuronal morphology, axon guidance, neurotransmission and long-term memory. Khsrp(-/-) mice …

The Impact Of Psychological Distress Due To Covid-19 On College Student Career Development, Sara Driver, Emily Bullock-Yowell

Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has been an ongoing public health crisis and continues to create a variety of challenges (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2020). Since the challenges of COVID-19 seem to be particularly salient for traditional college-age students (Kujawa et al., 2020) and career development is a corner stone of development at this stage, the current study investigated what impact the COVID-19 pandemic-related stress has on the psychological distress, career-development self-efficacy, and career decidedness of a sample of college students. Three hundred one students from a southeastern United States university participated in the study. We hypothesize 1) Impacts from …

From Soils To Streams: Connecting Terrestrial Carbon Transformation, Chemical Weathering, And Solute Export Across Hydrological Regimes, Hang Wen, Pamela L. Sullivan, Sharon A. Billings, Hoori Ajami, Alejandro Cueva, Alejandro Flores, Daniel R. Hirmas, Aaron N. Koop, Katie Murenbeeld, Xi Zhang, Li Li

Faculty Publications

Soil biota generates carbon that exports vertically to the atmosphere (CO2) and transports laterally to streams and rivers (dissolved organic and inorganic carbon, DOC and DIC). These processes, together with chemical weathering, vary with flow paths across hydrological regimes; yet an integrated understanding of these interactive processes is still lacking. Here we ask: How and to what extent do subsurface carbon transformation, chemical weathering, and solute export differ across hydrological and subsurface structure regimes? We address this question using a hillslope reactive transport model calibrated using soil CO2 and water chemistry data from Fitch, a temperate forest at the ecotone …

Charging Of Radioactive And Environmental Airborne Particles, Gyoung G. Jang, Alexander I. Wiechert, Yong Ha Kim, Austin P. Ladshaw, Tyler Spano, Joanna Mcfarlane, Kristian Myhre, Joon Jin Song, Sotira Yiacoumi, Costas Tsouris

Faculty Publications

The charging of various airborne particles was investigated using single-particle levitation and charge-balance equations. Though radioactive decay and triboelectrification can induce charging, it is typically assumed that the aerosols in a radioactive plume will not carry significant charge at steady state since atmospheric particles can have their charge neutralized through the capture of adjacent counter-ions (i.e., diffusion charging). To assess this assumption, we directly measured the surface charge and charge density of various triboelectrically charged aerosols including radioactive uranium oxide (< 1 μm), urban dust, Arizona desert dust, hydrophilic and hydrophobic silica nanoparticles, and graphene oxide powders using an electric field-assisted particle levitator in air. Of these particles, uranium oxide aerosols exhibited the highest surface charge density. Charge balance equations were employed to predict the average charge gained from radioactive decay as a function of time and to evaluate the effects of diffusion charging on triboelectrically charged radioactive and non-radioactive particles in the atmosphere. Simulation results show that particles, initially charged through triboelectrification, can be quickly discharged by diffusion charging in the absence of radioactive decay. Nevertheless, simulation results also indicate that particles can be strongly charged when they carry radionuclides. These experimental and simulation results suggest that radioactive decay can induce strong particle charging that may potentially affect atmospheric transport of airborne radionuclides.

Normalizing Reproductive Genetic Innovation, Myrisha S. Lewis

Faculty Publications

Many societally accepted techniques were quite controversial at inception and for decades after. For example, historically, dialysis was “unnatural,” vaccination was “the poisoned quill,” and artificial insemination was akin to adultery. Despite social and cultural hurdles, the aforementioned medical techniques have today attained overall public acceptance, permissive legal treatment, and even health insurance coverage in some cases.

Unlike many now-routine treatments like in vitro fertilization (IVF), egg freezing, and organ transplantation, which flourished without significant governmental intervention, today’s controversial medical treatments, especially those involving reproductive genetic innovation, face intense regulatory barriers. Reproductive genetic innovation, which is the combination of IVF …

Biometrics And An Ai Bill Of Rights, Margaret Hu

Faculty Publications

This Article contends that an informed discussion on an AI Bill of Rights requires grappling with biometric data collection and its integration into emerging AI systems. Biometric AI systems serve a wide range of governmental purposes, including policing, border security and immigration enforcement, and biometric cyberintelligence and biometric-enabled warfare. These systems are increasingly categorized as "high-risk" when deployed in ways that may impact fundamental constitutional rights and human rights. There is growing recognition that high-risk biometric AI systems, such as facial recognition identification, can pose unprecedented challenges to criminal procedure rights. This Article concludes that a failure to recognize these …

Corporate Governance Guidelines: How To Improve Disclosure And Promote Better Corporate Governance In Public Companies, Jennifer O'Hare

Faculty Publications

If you are a shareholder of a public corporation, you may think it would be easy to find basic information about your shareholder rights, such as whether shareholders have the right to call special stockholder meetings. You would probably assume that the information would be disclosed in the company’s “Corporate Governance Guidelines,” (CGGs) which, according to a New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) rule, must be posted on the company’s website for shareholder review. But, as this article shows, companies are not required to disclose information about shareholder rights in their corporate governance guidelines, and most companies have chosen not to …

Correlates Of Zero-Dose Vaccination Status Among Children Aged 12–59 Months In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis Of Individual And Contextual Factors, Chamberline E. Ozigbu, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Zhenlong Li, James W. Hardin, Nicole L. Hair

Faculty Publications

Despite ongoing efforts to improve childhood vaccination coverage, including in hard-to-reach and hard-to-vaccinate communities, many children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unvaccinated. Considering recent goals set by the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), including reducing the number of zero-dose children by half, research that goes beyond coverage to identify populations and groups at greater risk of being unvaccinated is urgently needed. This is a pooled cross-sectional study of individual- and country-level data obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys Program and two open data repositories. The sample includes 43,131 children aged 12–59 months sampled between 2010 and 2020 in 33 SSA countries. …

Correlates Of Zero-Dose Vaccination Status Among Children Aged 12-59 Months In Sub-Saharan Africa: A Multilevel Analysis Of Individual And Contextual Factors, Chamberline Ozigbu, Bankole Olatosi, Zhenlong Li, James W. Hardin, Nicole L. Hair

Faculty Publications

Despite ongoing efforts to improve childhood vaccination coverage, including in hard-to-reach and hard-to-vaccinate communities, many children in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) remain unvaccinated. Considering recent goals set by the Immunization Agenda 2030 (IA2030), including reducing the number of zero-dose children by half, research that goes beyond coverage to identify populations and groups at greater risk of being unvaccinated is urgently needed. This is a pooled cross-sectional study of individual- and country-level data obtained from Demographic and Health Surveys Program and two open data repositories. The sample includes 43,131 children aged 12–59 months sampled between 2010 and 2020 in 33 SSA countries. …

“Where The Truth Really Lies”: Listening To Voices From African American Communities In The Southern States About Covid-19 Vaccine Information And Communication, Ran Zhang, Shan Qiao, Brooke Mckeever, Bankole Olatosi, Xiaoming Li

Faculty Publications

The high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most promising measures to control the pandemic. However, some African American (AA) communities exhibit vaccination hesitancy due to mis- or disinformation. It is important to understand the challenges in accessing reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and to develop feasible health communication interventions based on voices from AA communities. We conducted 2 focus group discussions (FGDs) among 18 community stakeholders recruited from 3 counties in South Carolina on 8 October and 29 October 2021. The FGDs were conducted online via Zoom meetings. The FGD data were managed and thematically analyzed using NVivo …

Listening To Voices From African American Communities In The Southern States About Covid-19 Vaccine Information And Communication: A Qualitative Study, Ran Zhang, Shan Qiao, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

The high uptake of COVID-19 vaccines is one of the most promising measures to control the pandemic. However, some African American (AA) communities exhibit vaccination hesitancy due to mis- or disinformation. It is important to understand the challenges in accessing reliable COVID-19 vaccine information and to develop feasible health communication interventions based on voices from AA communities. We conducted 2 focus group discussions (FGDs) among 18 community stakeholders recruited from 3 counties in South Carolina on 8 October and 29 October 2021. The FGDs were conducted online via Zoom meetings. The FGD data were managed and thematically analyzed using NVivo …

Solving Inverse Conductivity Problems In Doubly Connected Domains By The Homogenization Functions Of Two Parameters, Jun Lu, Lianpeng Shi, Chein-Shan Liu, C.S. Chen

Faculty Publications

In the paper, we make the first attempt to derive a family of two-parameter homogenization functions in the doubly connected domain, which is then applied as the bases of trial solutions for the inverse conductivity problems. The expansion coefficients are obtained by imposing an extra boundary condition on the inner boundary, which results in a linear system for the interpolation of the solution in a weighted Sobolev space. Then, we retrieve the spatial- or temperature-dependent conductivity function by solving a linear system, which is obtained from the collocation method applied to the nonlinear elliptic equation after inserting the solution. Although …

Does Hiv-Related Stigma Depress Social Well-Being Of Youths Affected By Parental Hiv/Aids?, Yafei Zhao, Jiaojiao Wan, Lili Ji, Giagai Lui, Yixin Shi, Junfeng Zhao, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Parental illness or death due to HIV/AIDS has long-term impacts on children’s social well-being, potentially challenging the children’s basic developmental needs and future. Based on the theoretical model of social well-being, the present study tested a moderated mediation model that HIV-related stigma moderated the mediating role of social trust on the relationship between perceived social support (PSS) and social well-being. A sample of 297 youths aged 20–30 years affected by parental HIV/AIDS (57.2% male), including 129 (43.40%) AIDS orphans and 168 vulnerable youths (56.60%) completed questionnaires of perceived social support, social well-being, social trust, and HIV-related stigma. IBM SPSS 25.0 …

Readymades & Repertoires: Artifact-Mediated Improvisation In Tabletop Role-Playing Games, Philip Tchernavskij, Andrew M. Webb, Hayden Gemeinhardt, Wendy E. Mackay

Faculty Publications

Game masters (GMs) are creative practitioners who plan and orchestrate tabletop role-playing games. Through an interview study, we investigate how eight expert game masters adapt everyday technologies and materials as creativity support tools (CSTs) for improvisational and collaborative play. We integrate theories of improvisational and distributed creativity with the human-artifact model, which provides an activity-theoretical vocabulary for analyzing the mediating relationships between specialist practitioners and their tools. We show how GMs prepare and deploy readymade artifacts: analog and digital CSTs that flexibly mediate recurring creative tasks in their practice, such as improvising narrative elements, facilitating smooth play, and creating aesthetic …

Factors Associated With Covid-19 Vaccine Intentions Among South Carolina Residents, Mufaro Kanyangarara, Lauren Mcabee, Virginie G. Daguise, Melissa Nolan Ph.D., Mph

Faculty Publications

Despite evidence of vaccine safety and efficacy, vaccine hesitancy remains a major global health threat. The COVID-19 vaccine has presented unique vaccine hesitancy concerns compared to parental vaccine hesitancy towards childhood vaccines. South Carolina (SC) is home to a largely conservative population and historically has some of the lowest vaccination coverage rates in the United States of America. The goal of the current study was to identify factors associated with COVID-19 vaccine intentions among SC residents. From November 2020 to September 2021, 300,000 invitations to participate in community testing and complete an online survey were mailed to randomly selected SC …

Multilevel Determinants Of Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Severe Maternal Morbidity And Mortality In The Context Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In The Usa: Protocol For A Concurrent Triangulation, Mixed-Methods Study, Jihong Liu, Peiyin Hung Ph.D, Chen Liang Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Shan Qiao Ph.D., Berry A. Campbell, Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Myriam E. Torres Ph. D., Neset Hikmet, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction The COVID-19 pandemic has affected communities of colour the hardest. Non-Hispanic black and Hispanic pregnant women appear to have disproportionate SARS-CoV-2 infection and death rates.

Methods and analysis We will use the socioecological framework and employ a concurrent triangulation, mixed-methods study design to achieve three specific aims: (1) examine the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic on racial/ethnic disparities in severe maternal morbidity and mortality (SMMM); (2) explore how social contexts (eg, racial/ethnic residential segregation) have contributed to the widening of racial/ethnic disparities in SMMM during the pandemic and identify distinct mediating pathways through maternity care and mental health; and …