Digital Commons Network^™

'I Need Time To Start Antiretroviral Therapy': Understanding Reasons For Delayed Art Initiation Among People Diagnosed With Hiv In Lusaka, Zambia, Chanda Mwamba, Laura K Beres, Stephanie M Topp, Njekwa Mukamba, Sandra Simbeza, Kombatende Sikombe, Aaloke Mody, Elvin Geng, Charles B Holmes, Caitlin E Kennedy, Izukanji Sikazwe, Julie A Denison, Carolyn Bolton Moore

Open Access Publications

INTRODUCTION: Rapid antiretroviral therapy (ART) initiation can improve patient outcomes such as viral suppression and prevent new infections. However, not everyone who can start ART does so immediately.

METHODS: We conducted a qualitative study to inform interventions supporting rapid initiation in the 'Test and Start' era. We purposively sampled 20 adult patients living with HIV and a previous gap in care from ten health facilities in Lusaka, Zambia for interviews. We inductively analysed transcripts using a thematic, narrative approach. In their narratives, seven participants discussed delaying ART initiation.

RESULTS: Drawing on messages gleaned from facility-based counselling and community information, many …

Dietary Protein Intakes, Distribution Patterns, And Quality In Ncaa Divsion 1 Soccer Players, Jun H. Kwon

Master's Theses

Dietary protein is required to support recovery and adaptation following exercise training. While prior research demonstrates that many athletes meet total daily protein needs, intake seems to be predominantly skewed toward the evening meal. An even distribution of protein doses throughout the course of a day is theorized to confer greater skeletal muscle anabolism compared to a skewed pattern of intake. Protein quality is also an important dietary consideration for athletes, with the amino acid leucine being the primary driver of the postprandial anabolic response. The present thesis investigates the protein consumption characteristics among a selected cohort of NCAA Division …

Predicting Startup Success Using Publicly Available Data, Emily Gavrilenko

Master's Theses

Predicting the success of an early-stage startup has always been a major effort for investors and venture funds. Statistically, there are about 305 million total startups created in a year, but less than 10% of them succeed to become profitable businesses. Accurately identifying the signs of startup growth is the work of countless investors, and in recent years, research has turned to machine learning in hopes of improving the accuracy and speed of startup success prediction.

To learn about a startup, investors have to navigate many different internet sources and often rely on personal intuition to determine the startup’s potential …

Mediterranean-Style Diet And Exercise Improve Parameters For Management And Prevention Of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus, Stefani Ann Derrick

Master's Theses

Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is a chronic condition recognized as the inability to maintain glucose homeostasis, typically presenting with insulin resistance and systemic inflammation. With the prevalence of T2DM and major risk factors such as prediabetes and obesity increasing each year, there is a crucial need to identify strategies for the management and prevention of this condition. Addressing lifestyle-related risk factors through consumption of a well-balanced, nutritious diet and maintaining regular moderate- to high-intensity physical activity may provide a strategy for improving glycemic control, improving metrics of body composition, and decreasing the inflammatory response associated with metabolic dysregulation. Twenty-two …

From Mesoamerica To Aleppo And Transylvania: The Global Migration Of The Chile Pepper, Arianne M. Peterson, Arianne Peterson

Master's Theses

This thesis explores the migration of the chile pepper, or capsicum anuum, from Mesoamerica into the Old World after 1500, focusing on two case studies of the Aleppo pepper in Syria and paprika in what was once Hungarian Nagyvarad, and which is now Romanian Oradea. Using foodways as a historical lens, and considering the movement of food as historical, it can be seen that the chile pepper, despite its low profit value, illustrates a globalization that existed well before modern times, and it came to cement itself within many different cultures as a symbol of identity. Despite its far-away …

Enterprise Risk Management: Small And Medium Business, Vasili Krespis

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This culminating experience project examined common risk management trends and challenges that SMEs face and provided methods and tools that could limit threats and impact of unforeseeable events. This project demonstrates why business owners should use a risk management planning framework. The research questions were: (Q1) What are risk identification strategies which do not overstrain SMEs' limited resources? (Q2) How may risk analysis be performed effectively in SMEs? (Q3) How does the SMEs risk management system change over time? (Q4) What are the most effective risk analysis techniques and strategies for SMEs with limited resources?

A case study was examined …

Happy Objects And Bloom Spaces: Investigating The Potential Of Rupi Kaur's Poetry, Miguel Vega

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

In response to the movement of what is considered and labeled as “Instagram poetry,” poet and critic Rebecca Watts argues that to consider “artless” poetry as “poetry” we are denigrating the artform. This project centers around Watts’ claim that “the reader is dead” due to their encounter with such poetry. This project acts as a conversation that seeks to understand why certain forms of art are considered a “threat” to those who engage with them, as well as to their respective fields. Using affect theory (specifically the theory of the happy object) we can begin to understand why we gravitate …

Novel Technologies And Their Effect On The Customer Journey: Customers' Sentiment With Tesla App, Andrew Jaymes

Electronic Theses, Projects, and Dissertations

This culminating experience project explores how novel technologies, such as artificial intelligence (AI), the Internet of Things (IoT), and virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR), impact customer experience. The customer journey framework was used to analyze customers' responses to interactions with novel Technologies integrated into Tesla electric vehicles. After gathering customer response data from the Tesla Motors subreddit page, we were able to score customer experiences with the Tesla app, over-the-air software updates, and full self-driving features, using the NRC sentiment lexicon. Our results showed customers tended to express more positive sentiments than negative sentiments when describing their experiences with these …

Loan Survival: Are Socially Disadvantaged Farmers More Likely To Default Or Pay In Full?, Marie-Cécile Vekemans

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This study aims at identifying racial and gender discrimination in the usage of credit for Socially Disadvantaged Farmers and Ranchers (SDFR) in the United States. Usage of credit is considered successful when a loan has been paid in full and a failure is considered when the borrower defaults. Identifying such a pathway would provide useful information to the Federal government United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Farm Service Agency (FSA) to evaluate the effectiveness and equity of loan programs. This study uses data from the USDA FSA farm loan programs that mainly target socially disadvantaged farmers and other underserved groups. …

Susannah And Cold Mountain: Examining The Portrayal Of Appalachian Culture In Opera, Savannah Bennett

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis applies qualitative literary analysis and ethnographic methods to examine the portrayal of Appalachia in the operas Susannah and Cold Mountain. The operas were premiered almost 60 years apart, yet they share many themes that epitomize roles, patterns, and stereotypes within the Appalachian region. One theme observed is the role and expectations of Appalachian women and how they have developed over time, as the plots are placed roughly a century apart. The depictions of Appalachian religious traditions and representations of violence are also explored as these themes play a considerable role in Susannah and Cold Mountain. By analyzing …

What Does It Mean To Take Online Classes As An International Student During Covid-19?, Katie K. Koo, Mei Jiang

Faculty Publications

Using the Theory of Social Support and the Community of Inquiry as theoretical frameworks, this qualitative study explored international students’ experiences, challenges, and perceptions of online learning environments during the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. By conducting three virtual focus group interviews with 18 international students, we identified four key themes that encapsulate participants’ challenges and experiences of online learning: social isolation in online learning spaces, difficulties with engaging in online class discussions and activities, limited opportunities for improving English proficiency in the online setting and limited academic support from faculty and advisors. Implications for research and practice to …

Beyond The Boundaries Of Nursing Care: A Phenomenological Study, Tri Ismu Pujiyanto, Shindi Hapsari, Umi Hani

Jurnal Keperawatan Indonesia

The COVID-19 pandemic created an emergency and challenging situation, especially for nurses, who have experienced feelings including fear and questions concerning their job responsibilities and professional ethics. They needed to maintain safety on the basis of their knowledge and skills. This study aimed to explore nurses’ experiences related to the pandemic. This research was conducted by using qualitative research with a descriptive phenomenological design. The participants were 15 nurses on duty in COVID-19 units at hospitals and who were delivering or had delivered direct care to patients with COVID-19. Data were collected from in-depth interview and analyzed with Colaizzi technique. …

Exploring The Experiences Of Clients Receiving Opioid Use Disorder Treatment At A Methadone Clinic In Kenya: A Qualitative Study, Sarah Kiburi, Jackline Mwangi, Geoffrey Maina

Internal Medicine, East Africa

Background: Assessing the experiences of individuals on methadone treatment is essential to help evaluate the treatment program’s efectiveness. This study aimed to explore the experiences of patients receiving methadone treatment at a clinic in Nairobi, Kenya.

Method: This study employed an exploratory qualitative study design. Through purposive sampling, participants were enrolled from individuals attending a methadone clinic for at least 2 years. Semi-structured individual interviews were used to collect data on substance use and experience before methadone treatment and experiences after starting methadone treatment, including benefts and challenges. Interviews were transcribed, and NVIVO 12 software was used to …

Singapore Management University Launches Its First Overseas Centre In Jakarta, Singapore Management University

SMU Press Releases and News

Singapore Management University (SMU) today opened its first overseas centre in Jakarta, Indonesia, bolstering the university’s goal to positively impact local communities as it advances its "Growth in Asia" strategic priority as part of its Vision 2025.

Development Of The Teaching Twice Exceptional Students Scale, Michelle Ann Godzinski

Dissertations

Twice exceptional (2e) students are a unique population of students, who present with a wide range of strengths and weaknesses. For this reason, it is important for teachers to be trained and feel prepared to work with these students. Teacher self-efficacy has been shown to influence both student and personal outcomes (e.g. student perceptions of school, student academic success, teacher retention, etc). The Teaching Twice Exceptional Students Scale (TTESS) was developed as a way to measure teacher’s self-efficacy in regard to working with 2e students, so that districts may better identify gaps in knowledge or training that teachers may have. …

Assessing The Damage: Moral Realism And The Evolutionary Debunking Argument, Olivia Denton

Honors Theses

For millennia, prominent thinkers have believed that moral sentiments were the recognition of external, objective truths, be they of divine, Platonic, or natural origin. Now the challenge is to find any objective tether at all for our evaluative judgements. The theory of evolution’s encroachment on metaethics is practically as old as Charles Darwin himself, but the more evolved version of this attack on the justification for moral realism (the position that avers the existence of objective moral truths and that we can know at least some of them) comes in the form of Evolutionary Debunking Arguments (EDAs). The (specifically, materialist) …

Characterization In Satire: The Three Degrees Of Roundness; Purpose, Complexity, And Credibility, Gary Morrill-Carpenter

Masters Theses and Doctoral Dissertations

The project will attempt to explore how courtship, marriage, family, and divorce would be perceived by characters of the Greek mythos as they attempt to assimilate to a fictional Western culture through the use of satirical conventions. How would modern cultural normalities be accepted or rejected by these mythological figures? Would humanity welcome their assimilation or retaliate with prejudice? What roles do the many variations of love play in the Olympian lives as they navigate civil coexistence?

Decision Making By The Prefrontal Cortex And The Role Of Dopamine In Pyramidal Neuron Function, Nesrien Muftah Milad Mohamed

Dissertations

There were two primary focuses of this research. The first aim was to investigate how students’ perception toward the flipped classroom and video learning correlate to their characteristics including their demographics, first generation status, English language learner status, Grit level, motivation types, quality of peer collaboration, and social self-efficacy. Our data indicated that there is significant correlation between student’s motivation status and attitude toward learning from video lectures. The intrinsically motivated students have a higher attitude toward learning from video. This study also demonstrates that participants with high Grit scores performed better than the participants with low Grit scores. The …

“I Don’T Believe The World Is Tilted”: Emotion, Struggle, And Relationship In Making Meaning With Texts, Alison Faye Oddie

Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to understand how the social and cultural practices of classroom literacy instruction afforded students opportunities to make meaning with texts. Research was conducted from a sociocultural perspective that focused on students as participants in social learning, in a context of interactive relations. This study was responsive to contemporary developments of the sociocultural tradition, recognizing the importance of emotion and other subjective means for constructing understanding. Two classes of a turnaround school, 18 Second-Grade students and 20 Third-Grade students, were observed as they participated in Interactive Read Aloud and Guided Reading over a period of …

Predicting Nurse Faculty Intent To Stay: A Quantitative Study Of Contributing Factors And Their Influence, Erica Frost

Dissertations

The United States faces a shortage of nursing faculty members, impacting the nation’s ability to meet the demand for more nurses in the workforce. The purpose of this study was to identify factors that predicted nurse faculty members’ intent to stay in academe. Dozens of factors were identified in the literature and grouped using Herzberg’s (1966) motivation-hygiene theory of job satisfaction. An online questionnaire was administered to 402 full-time prelicensure baccalaureate nursing faculty in the United States. The survey measured personal, job, and organizational factors including demographics, emotional intelligence, resilience, educational preparation, self-efficacy, mentoring and orientation, interpersonal relationships, and satisfaction …

Linear Language, Selina Kehuan Wu, Special Collections, Fleet Library

10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest 2024

Entry for the 10th Baker & Whitehill Student Artists' Book Contest. Opening Reception Thursday, February 29th, 2024 Fleet Library, Main Reading Room. Juror: Ian Cozzens BArch 05.

The Effects Of The Avid Program On Rural Student Growth In Middle Grades Mathematics, James Allen

All Dissertations

From this mixed method study, I present my findings on the effects of selected aspects of the Advancement Via Individual Determination (AVID) program on rural middle school students’ mathematics achievement. Previous research on the AVID program has focused on implementation in urban schools, although rural communities’ student populations continue to grow.

Most research on AVID’s success in urban settings show positive correlations between how long students participate in the AVID program and their college readiness. Other research about predictors of college success shows students who do not enroll in advanced level mathematics courses in middle school are less likely to …

Investigation Of Gaas Double Heterostructures For Photonic Heat Engines, Nathan Giannini-Hutchin

Optical Science and Engineering ETDs

The creation of a laser cooled semiconductor device has been a long sought achievement. GaAs-based devices have emerged as a promising candidate for the realization of this goal. Efforts to improve the efficiency of such devices have enabled the material to exhibit external quantum efficiencies (EQE, a measure of the probability that an excitation leads to the emission of a photon) of 99.5\%. Despite this impressive feat, a laser coolable device remains elusive.

To investigate the obstacles to such a device, the material characteristics of GaAs-based double heterostructures (DHS) are theoretically and experimentally examined. Through this study, a GaAs $\vert$ …

School-Based E-Cigarette Education Curriculum, “Team No Vaping”: Impact On Knowledge Of E-Cigarettes, Harm Perception, And Media Literacy Among Middle/High School Students, Niran Tamrakar

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

E-cigarettes are the most used tobacco products among middle/high school students. Youth e-cigarette use is at an epidemic level. While school-based vaping prevention programs exist, there is limited evidence on the effectiveness of such programs. To address vaping prevention among this vulnerable population, University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) in collaboration with the Tobacco Education & Advocacy of the Midlands (TEAM) developed and implemented a school-based e-cigarette education curriculum, “TEAM No Vaping.” This study evaluated the impact of the “TEAM No Vaping” program on increasing the knowledge, harm perception, and susceptibility to e-cigarettes, and vaping media literacy for vaping prevention …

An Epidemiological Synthesis Of Emerging And Re-Emerging Zoonotic Disease Threats In Cameroon, 2000-2022 And Community Stakeholder Mapping, Nancy Tahmo

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Introduction: Population factors such as urbanization, socio-economic, and environmental factors are driving forces for emerging/re-emerging diseases in Cameroon, and the effects of these are experienced differently across demographics. Indigenous rainforest communities in the Congo Basin, for example, suffer worse health outcomes compared to neighboring communities, like the Pygmies, who have a life expectancy of 22 years less than neighboring Bantus. It is important to characterize the risk of exposure of these vulnerable communities and map out, through a systematic review, descriptive epidemiological data around zoonoses, to inform preparedness and research efforts.

Methods: Following the PRISMA guidelines, a protocol was registered …

Urban/Rural Disparities Of Thyroid Cancer Using The Integrated Cancer Repository For Cancer Research (Icare2), Sunita Regmi

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Abstract:

Background and objective: Multiple studies have shown that the place of residence and the distance to travel from one's residence to nearby health care providers impact cancer diagnosis and treatment. The stage of cancer at the time of diagnosis is paramount for cancer treatment and affects survival. Disparities in cancer treatment exist which affect the outcome disproportionately to certain segments of the population. To date, much of the focus has been on the racial and socioeconomic disparities in the management of thyroid cancer. The effect of geography and location (urban-rural status) on thyroid cancer stage diagnosis has …

Evaluating How The Impacts Of Climate Change On Arizona's Water Supply Will Influence Public Health, Patricia Wrona

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Over the last century, Arizona’s climate has increased more than 1.1 to 1.4 degrees Celsius or 2 to 2.5 degrees Fahrenheit. The temperature in Arizona is expected to increase an additional 2.2°C to 2.8°C in the next 40 years. Climate change poses various health and environmental hazards for the residents of Arizona. One of the most significant impacts is on water supply. As temperatures continue to rise in the desert, the demand for water will increase while the water supply will reduce. A literature review and program evaluation were conducted to evaluate how the impacts of climate change on Arizona’s …

Barriers To Healthcare Access For Refugees And Immigrants With Limited English Proficiency In Nebraska: A Systematic Review Of The Literature, Mawada Mohammed

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Refugees and immigrants in the United States from a multitude of backgrounds are impacted by limited English proficiency (LEP), resulting in a health disparity. LEP in vulnerable populations can create obstacles in healthcare. In healthcare settings LEP patients experience adverse health events such as longer hospital stays, negative drug reaction, and patient dissatisfaction (Berdahl & Kirby, 2019). The following project aims to identify barriers for refugees and immigrants with limited English proficiency (LEP) in primary healthcare settings in Nebraska. The project utilized a systematic literature review using peer-reviewed and gray literature. The research was conducted utilizing databases: PsycINFO, PubMed, Google …

Hispanic/Latino Mothers Of Children With Developmental Disabilities: Identifying Factors Associated With Practicing Self-Care And Mental Health Outcomes, Jessica Gutierrez

Capstone Experience: Master of Public Health

Caring for a child with developmental disabilities can be challenging, exhausting, and overwhelming for many parents. The level of care that a child with disabilities requires can be intense, resulting in stress and negatively impacting caregivers' mental health. Many Hispanic/Latino mothers of children with developmental disabilities are not practicing self-care or using support services; thus, the mothers may experience high stress, depression, and anxiety. Previous research studies have found adverse psychological effects such as high levels of stress, depression, and anxiety. This quantitative study sought to identify the gaps and barriers Hispanic/Latino mothers of children with developmental disabilities encounter when …

The Anchor: December 2022, Hope College

The Anchor: 2022

The Anchor began in 1887 and was first issued weekly in 1914. Covering national and campus news alike, Hope College’s student-run newspaper has grown over the years to encompass over two-dozen editors, reporters, and staff. For much of The Anchor's history, the latest issue was distributed across campus each Wednesday throughout the academic school year (with few exceptions). In recent years The Anchor moved to monthly print issues and a more frequently updated website. The Anchor is now published in print twice per academic semester. Occasionally, the volume and/or issue numbering is irregular.