Digital Commons Network^™

Mandating The Hpv Vaccine Is Unconstitutional: Exploring An Alternative Legislative Choice, Sara M. Meyer

Student Works

No abstract provided.

An Outcry To Improve Healthcare Worker Health And Workplace Safety Protections In The Era Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Playing Hot Potato Is Not An Option When Healthcare Worker Health And Workplace Safety Protections Fall Short, Sherry Culver

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Sperm You Can Bank On; A Proposed Federal Regulatory Scheme To Increase Consumer Protection In The Sperm Donation Industry, Jessica Stookey

Student Works

No abstract provided.

Achieving Better Care In Pennsylvania By Allowing Pharmacists To Practice Pharmacy, Travis Murray

Dickinson Law Review (2017-Present)

Traditionally, state legislatures implemented Prescription Drug Monitoring Programs (“PDMPs”) to assist prescribers, pharmacists, and law enforcement in identifying patients likely to misuse, abuse, or divert controlled substances. PDMP databases contain a catalog of a patient’s recent controlled substances that pharmacies have filled, including the date, location, the quantity of medication filled, and the prescribing health care provider. Prescribers in Pennsylvania have a duty to query the PDMP before prescribing controlled substances in most clinical settings. Pharmacists have a similar duty in Pennsylvania to dispense safe and effective medication therapy to patients and to screen patients for potential signs of misuse, …

Institutional Responses To The Covid-19 Pandemic: Faculty And Administrator Experiences, Narketta Sparkman-Key, Tammi F. Dice, Alexandra C. Gantt

Counseling & Human Services Faculty Publications

The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic required shifts in operations for institutions of higher education everywhere. Faculty and administrators were asked to adapt to meet the needs of students. We conducted a qualitative content analysis to understand institutional responses and examine the experiences of faculty and administrators during the COVID-19 pandemic through the lens of chaos theory. Institutional responses to the pandemic varied. Participants identified supports and resources deemed helpful, as well as those found to be inadequate or unwanted. We also found that the pandemic resulted in some positive outcomes for faculty and administrators, which led to growth in …

Prevention Of Work-Related Musculoskeletal Disorders Among Individuals Utilizing A Home Computer Workstation, Dalton Fetsch, Jonah Kratochvil

Occupational Therapy Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this project was to develop a comprehensive educational guide for office workers and students who utilize a home computer workstation for a majority of their day utilizing current evidence. This guide is intended to help prevent the onset of MSDs that often occur due to improper ergonomic positioning and limited resources when utilizing home computer workstations

Cold Atmospheric-Pressure Plasma Caused Protein Damage In Methicillin-Resistant Staphylococcus Aureus Cells In Biofilms, Li Guo, Lu Yang, Yu Qi, Gulimire Niyazi, Lingling Huang, Lu Gou, Zifeng Wang, Lei Zhang, Dingxin Liu, Xiaohua Wang, Hailan Chen, Michael G. Kong

Bioelectrics Publications

Biofilms formed by multidrug-resistant bacteria are a major cause of hospital-acquired infections. Cold atmospheric-pressure plasma (CAP) is attractive for sterilization, especially to disrupt biofilms formed by multidrug-resistant bacteria. However, the underlying molecular mechanism is not clear. In this study, CAP effectively reduced the living cells in the biofilms formed by methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and 6 min treatment with CAP reduced the S. aureus cells in biofilms by 3.5 log₁₀. The treatment with CAP caused the polymerization of SaFtsZ and SaClpP proteins in the S. aureus cells of the biofilms. In vitro analysis demonstrated that recombinant SaFtsZ lost …

A Pound Of Flesh: How Medical Copayments In Prison Cost Inmates Their Health And Set Them Up For Reoffense, Rachel Wiggins

University of Colorado Law Review

The attitude of acquiescence in legislatures and courts has permitted the American prison system to develop a practice of exploiting the health of its incarcerated population as an additional and excessive form of punishment. This article focuses on a practice widely used in prisons-the imposition of medical copayments- which contributes to the current culture of endangering the physical and mental health of incarcerated persons, all in the name of cost cutting and prisoner control. The problem of medical copayments could be solved by both the courts, which could recognize that the practice serves no legitimate penological interest, and the states …

Living Together In Precarious Times: Covid-19 In The Philippines, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

The coronavirus pandemic has laid bare the necessity—for social scientists and the rest of the public alike—of an ecological; non-anthropocentric view of the world as humans grapple with microbes; surround themselves with plants; and engage with non-human animals in ways that range from abuse to affection. This chapter uses this multispecies perspective to reflect on the Philippine experience of COVID-19; offering illustrative examples; sketching tentative insights; and concluding with a research agenda for future work.

Los Indetectables: An Examination Of Oral Histories Of Hiv+, Undetectable Gay Latino Men During Covid-19 And U=U (Undetectable = Untransmittable) Era, Angel Ornelas

CMC Senior Theses

Since the early 1990s, antiretroviral medications have made it possible to reduce viral loads of HIV/AIDS to the point of undetectability to standard blood tests. Individuals living with such low quantities of the virus have reframed our social understanding of the HIV-AIDS epidemic by redefining HIV infection as a chronic, manageable disease and challenging current public health definitions of safe-sex activity for homosexual men. HIV infection is no longer a death sentence, but it remains a life sentence requiring constant medication adherence and treatment, major changes to lifestyle habits, and a modification in sexual performances. This thesis sheds new light …

A Network Pandemic: Exploring The Effects Of Social Connectedness On The Spread Of Covid-19 In The United States, Mrinalini Bhushan

CMC Senior Theses

Social interactions influence the way we think and act. Recent literature on COVID-19 and social connectedness explores how social interactions influence people’s perceptions of the risk from COVID-19 and their behaviors. This paper seeks to investigate how social connectedness, political ideologies, and physical interaction are associated with local COVID-19 case and death rates at the US county level. Social connectedness, as defined by (Bailey et al, 2018) measures connectedness between US counties based on Facebook friendship links. I examine whether a county’s average social connectedness to other counties, as determined by the Facebook index, has an impact on its own …

Didactic Democracy: Rethinking The Roles Of Individuality, Political Freedoms And “Cultural Values” In The Process Of Development, Sabrina Hartono

CMC Senior Theses

Working off of Amartya Sen’s “Development as Freedom,” this paper challenges the conception of political freedoms and their instrumental, constructive and intrinsic roles in the development of society. I explore how identity formation is not as individualistic as Sen implicitly assumes in his framework. Using Elizabeth Anderson’s work on the importance of community in developing an individual identity, as well as incorporating ideas from Marx and Somers, I argue that there is strong reason to believe that Sen’s emphasis on the instrumental and constructive roles of political freedoms is exaggerated. I challenged Sen’s conception of the intrinsic value of political …

Postpartum Depression Rates In Latine Birthing Parents During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Closer Look At Cultural Protective Factors And Acculturation, Perla Barajas

CMC Senior Theses

In the Latine community, the prioritization of social or familial support (familism) serves as a cultural protective factor that has typically guarded against unfavorable health outcomes. However, during the COVID-19 pandemic, social interactions and familial support were substantially limited. A vulnerable population during this pandemic was Latine birthing parents because previous studies have shown that perception of social support directly impacts postpartum depression (PPD) in this group. This study will use data from the Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System to compare PPD rates for Latine birthing parents from before the COVID-19 pandemic to the PPD rates during the pandemic. Moreover, …

Politics Of The Obesity Epidemic, Jacob Lyle

CMC Senior Theses

American society has long been obsessed with the issue of obesity. The turn of the 20th century broadly marked the beginning of America's current collective understanding of obesity. Throughout the century, the salience of the issue waxed and waned due to various factors. Around 2000, obesity became a major political issue. Media coverage of the issue exploded, and it became a hot topic for political debate. This paper looks to conduct a complete reckoning of the obesity epidemic that includes contextualizing the economic, cultural, and political factors that have shaped the issue throughout the 20th and 21st centuries.

Environmental Law, Disrupted By Covid-19, Erin Ryan

Scholarly Publications

For over a year, the COVID-19 pandemic and concerns about systemic racial injustice have highlighted the conflicts and opportunities currently faced by environmental law. Scientists uniformly predict that environmental degradation, notably climate change, will cause a rise in diseases, disproportionate suffering among communities already facing discrimination, and significant economic losses. In this Article, members of the Environmental Law Collaborative examine the legal system’s responses to these crises, with the goal of framing opportunities to reimagine environmental law. The Article is excerpted from their book Environmental Law, Disrupted, to be published by ELI Press later this year.

Akses Pelayanan Kesehatan Keluarga Berstatus Ekonomi Rendah Di Era Jkn, Prastuti Soewondo, Meliyanni Johar, Retno Pujisubekti

Jurnal Ekonomi dan Pembangunan Indonesia

Economically disadvantaged families often cannot pay for healthcare. Since Jaminan Kesehatan Nasional (JKN) was launched in 2014, the government expands subsidies for these families, identified based on consumption. However, this criterion would misclassify families with low purchasing power as economically advantaged because they have large consumption, financed through social assistance. This paper uses the income from the main job instead to determine families’ economic rank. Based on 35 percent of families with the lowest income, utilisation increases with insurance availability. Predictions using consumption as the gauge for economic rank are underestimated, up to 71 percent for inpatient services.

A Period Seroprevalence (Sars-Cov-2) Survey In Mhccn Cancer Healthcare Workers (Hcws) Providing Patient Care During The Height Of The Outbreak: A Registry Study (Initial Progress), Jill Prescott, Caroline Knight, Erin Hobart, Jamie Saunders, Kimberly Caron, Sandra Neptune, Patty Brown, Lisa Lemire, Anne Breggia, Susan L. Guierin-Staples, Lee Lucas, Paul Han, Rachit Kumar, Robert Carlson, Scot Remick

Costas T. Lambrew Research Retreat 2021

Introduction: There is little information on the basic epidemiologic and serologic profile(s) of the novel SARSCoV- 2 coronavirus especially in HCWs employed in rural settings. We embarked on a period seroprevalence study in the MaineHealth Cancer Network (MHCCN) to document Covid-19 exposure in our rural cancer care workforce. Our fundamental hypothesis is that despite implementing procedures to safeguard patients and the use of appropriate PPE in the care of known source patients/PUIs in both the inpatient and outpatient cancer care settings a small, but not insignificant number of cancer care providers (hereafter referred to as cancer HCWs) will have evidence …

Scales Of Healthcare Aid And The Syrian Refugee Crisis In Jordan (2021), Mindy Lan Miller

International Studies Undergraduate Honors Theses

At the 10-year mark of the Syrian crisis, this paper will analyze humanitarian aid organizations at the internationaland local levels i that deliver healthcare aid to Syrian refugeesin Jordan under the broader context of a movement towards aid localization. The paper will begin by examining refugee theory and policy in Jordan’s context, the network of humanitarian aid in Jordan, and reports on capacities of healthcare provision to Syrian refugeesto defend the crucial role aid organizations play in healthcare provision to Syrian refugees in Jordan. After identifying the needforhumanitarian assistance, the paper willdraw on interviews with aid organizations and organizational activities …

Equine West Nile Virus In Kentucky: Characteristics Of Historical Testing And Analysis Of Causal Factors, Kaelyn Short

Theses and Dissertations--Public Health (M.P.H. & Dr.P.H.)

As the arbovirus with the highest incidence in both humans and horses in the United States, West Nile Virus (WNV) presents a significant risk to the equine population of Kentucky. Widespread infection has the potential to cause a significant economic impact to the state and long-term health complications for the horses. To better understand the burden of equine WNV, historical diagnostic testing archives the University of Kentucky Veterinary Diagnostic Lab were analyzed along with environmental and census data collected from additional sources. A total of 2146 test results were analyzed utilizing descriptive statistics, chi-square tests of independence, and binary logistic …

Sex, Crime, And Serostatus, Courtney Cross

Scholarly Works

The HIV crisis in the United States is far from over. The confluence of widespread opioid usage, high rates of HIV infection, and rapidly shrinking rural medical infrastructure has created a public health powder keg across the American South. Yet few states have responded to this grim reality by expanding social and medical services. Instead, criminalizing the behavior of people with HIV remains an overused and counterproductive tool for addressing this crisis-especially in the South, where HIV-specific criminal laws are enforced with the most frequency.

People living with HIV are subject to arrest, prosecution, and lengthy prison sentences if they …

Evaluating Clinician Features And Reporting Decisions On Performance In The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System, Christopher Robert Han

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

The Merit-Based Incentive Payment System (MIPS) is the largest change to physician reimbursement in decades. We sought to examine clinician participation and performance of clinicians to better understand the relationship between clinician features and reporting decisions on MIPS scores and payment adjustments.

Using publicly available data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), we examined 2018 clinician participation and performance in the MIPS. We analyzed aggregate MIPS score performance as well as payment adjustment results stratified by clinician specialty, reporting affiliation, practice size, and the CMS special status designating rural or health profession shortage area (HPSA). Using linear …

Refugee Health, Healthcare, And Resettlement In New Haven, Connecticut: A Historical Study With Contemporary Implications, Ezra Lichtman

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Nationally, there is no single clinic model for the provision of healthcare to refugees, and the field of refugee health is perpetually in flux. However, in the New Haven area, there is a well-established system of resettlement, health screening, and healthcare integration for newly arrived refugees. A local agency secures housing, provides education and social opportunities, and coordinates medical visits. And Yale-New Haven Hospital holds adult and pediatric screening clinics for refugees. The origins of this local system lie in the late 1970s and 1980s, when Soviet Jewish and Southeast Asian refugees began to relocate to New Haven in large …

Sex, Crime, And Serostatus, Courtney K. Cross

Washington and Lee Law Review

The HIV crisis in the United States is far from over. The confluence of widespread opioid usage, high rates of HIV infection, and rapidly shrinking rural medical infrastructure has created a public health powder keg across the American South. Yet few states have responded to this grim reality by expanding social and medical services. Instead, criminalizing the behavior of people with HIV remains an overused and counterproductive tool for addressing this crisis—especially in the South, where HIV-specific criminal laws are enforced with the most frequency.

People living with HIV are subject to arrest, prosecution, and lengthy prison sentences if they …

Neuropsychological Implications Of Nocturnal Hypoxemia In Sickle Cell Disease, Sheena Ram

Theses and Dissertations

Neuropsychological impairments have been observed in both individuals with sleep-disordered breathing and in individuals with sickle cell disease (SCD), but there has been little research on the potential effect of sleep-disordered breathing on neuropsychological function in individuals with SCD. This study aims to examine the effect nocturnal oxygen desaturations have on neuropsychological functioning in individuals with sickle cell disease when compared to those with non-sickle anemia and healthy controls. Thirty-four participants with SCD, 18 non-sickle anemia controls (ACTL), and 29 healthy controls (CTL), ages 9 to 63 years, participating in an IRB-approved Children’s Hospital Los Angeles study of cerebral blood …

Metal-Organic Frameworks As Bacteria Mimicking Delivery Systems For Tuberculosis, Ailin Guo

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis (M.tb), with an estimated 1.5 million deaths and 10 million infections each year. Although TB can be effectively treated with antibiotics, because of the complications and length of treatment, many people fail to complete the treatment which exacerbates the emergence of drug-resistant M. tb strains. The goal of this work is to develop biomimetic particles as host-directed therapy to target the infected macrophages. Two types of metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), MIL-100(Fe) and MIL-88A(Fe) were developed for bacteriamimicking particles. As a proof-of-concept, Mannose was selected as a ligand to target macrophages because …

An Exploration Of The Effects Of An Early Postpartum Intravenous Infusion With Carnosic Acid On Physiological Responses Of Transition Dairy Cows, Tainara Michelotti

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The transition period is commonly defined as the last 3 wk before parturition to 3 wk after parturition. It is the most critical stage of the lactation cycle of high-producing dairy cows. The period consists of a complex interplay of metabolic and hormonal adaptations, inflammation, and immune activation. During the transition period, dairy cows commonly face oxidative stress, an underlying factor for dysfunctional immune response and enhanced inflammation, which can further increase the susceptibility of dairy cattle to health disorders and decrease productivity. In the last few decades, there has been an increased interest in studying alternative natural compounds with …

Lower Socioeconomic Status Neighborhoods In Puerto Rico Have More Diverse Mosquito Communities And Higher Aedes Aegypti Abundance, Nicole A. Scavo, Roberto Barrera, Limarie J. Reyes-Torres, Donald A. Yee

Faculty Publications

Mosquito community dynamics in urban areas are influenced by an array of both social and ecological factors. Human socioeconomic factors (SEF) can be related to mosquito abundance and diversity as urban mosquito development sites are modified by varying human activity, e.g., level of abandoned structures or amount of accumulated trash. The goal of this study was to investigate the relationships among mosquito diversity, populations of Aedes aegypti, and SEF in a tropical urban setting. Mosquitoes were collected using BG Sentinel 2 traps and CDC light traps during three periods between late 2018 and early 2019 in San Juan, Puerto …

Utilizing Theories And Evaluation In Digital Gaming Interventions To Increase Human Papillomavirus Vaccination Among Young Males: Qualitative Study, Gabrielle Darville, Jade Burns, Tanaka Chavanduka, Charkarra Anderson-Lewis

Faculty Publications

Background: Human papillomavirus (HPV) is the most common sexually transmitted infection in the United States. HPV attributes to most cancers including anal, oral, cervical, and penile. Despite infection rates in the United States, recommendations and communication campaigns have traditionally focused on females. Because of this, males lack knowledge about reasons for vaccination, the benefits of being vaccinated, and their HPV risk, overall. Gaming as a health education strategy can be beneficial as mechanism that can promote behavior change for this key demographic because of the popularity of gaming.

Objective: We sought to explore the relationship between gamification and …

Integrated Torrefaction-Extrusion System For Conversion Of Fiber-Plastic Wastes Into Solid Fuels, Shreyas Kolapkar

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

Waste generation is increasing, and a significant portion is being landfilled. In parallel, we are constantly pursuing cleaner fuels due to environmental and regulatory factors. To address both these challenges, torrefaction of wastes to produce clean fuels and feedstock for other thermochemical processes is one of the potential solutions. This work focuses on (a) fundamental understanding of the properties of un-torrefied and torrefied wastes and (b) development of a pilot-scale integrated torrefaction-extrusion system for converting fiber-plastic wastes to solid fuels.

In this study, a 60:40 fiber-plastic waste blend was used for performing extensive experiments on densified and un-densified wastes to …

Lactate Promotes Macrophage Hmgb1 Lactylation, Acetylation, And Exosomal Release In Polymicrobial Sepsis, Kun Yang, Min Fan, Xiaohui Wang, Jingjing Xu, Yana Wang, Fei Tu, P. S. Gill, Tuanzhu Ha, Li Liu, David L. Williams, Chuanfu Li

ETSU Faculty Works

High circulating levels of lactate and high mobility group box-1 (HMGB1) are associated with the severity and mortality of sepsis. However, it is unclear whether lactate could promote HMGB1 release during sepsis. The present study demonstrated a novel role of lactate in HMGB1 lactylation and acetylation in macrophages during polymicrobial sepsis. We found that macrophages can uptake extracellular lactate via monocarboxylate transporters (MCTs) to promote HMGB1 lactylation via a p300/CBP-dependent mechanism. We also observed that lactate stimulates HMGB1 acetylation by Hippo/YAP-mediated suppression of deacetylase SIRT1 and β-arrestin2-mediated recruitment of acetylases p300/CBP to the nucleus via G protein-coupled receptor 81 (GPR81). …