Digital Commons Network^™

Social Media Effects On Adolescent Social Skills And Mental Health, Precious Kol

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on young adolescents’ use of social networking sites. As technology continues to grow and progress, its influence on adolescents grows and progresses along with it. Social networking sites provide adolescents with the opportunity to present their individuality to the digital world and the opportunity to connect and communicate with their peers. On the other hand, these sites also present vulnerabilities such as exposure to strangers, predators, and potential bullies. Due to the related psychological development, mental health and perspective of self issues with adolescents on these sites, it is important for parents to teach them how …

Parent Workshop On Young Children's Emotional Development, Margarita Camacho

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My capstone project focuses on parents with preschool-aged children. At this age, children feel their emotions before they can recognize what they mean, and it is difficult for them to self-regulate their emotions. Executive function abilities, as well as language abilities, are some of the potential reasons for the difficulties. Research has demonstrated that the first five years of life are crucial for children's emotional development. According to Chronis-Tuscano et al. (2016), to be able to regulate emotions and respond to them effectively, the use of executive functioning skills as well as several cognitive processors are required. Also, as Chronis-Tuscano …

Informing Adolescents From Latino Immigrant Families About The Effects Of Their Family Responsibilities, Roxanna Emigdio Hernandez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

This capstone project focuses on the different types of responsibilities that Latino immigrant families give to their adolescents and the effects it may have on them. Children play an active role in many immigrant families because of cultural traditions and immigration challenges (Fuligni & Telzer, 2012). Adolescents of immigrant parents are often involved in responsibilities such as caring for their younger siblings and cousins, cleaning, cooking, and translating for family members. Adolescents are given these duties because their parents often work multiple jobs and long hours to provide for their families. It is also important to note how difficult a …

How Swim Lessons Improve Overall Health In Children Ages 7 To 13, Fiona Sonni

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

My capstone project focuses on increasing school-aged children’s awareness about the need for physical activity to improve overall health. There are reports that children’s physical activity has decreased in recent years. Because they spend so much time behind a screen, they do not get adequate exercise and experience feelings of depression and lack of motivation to change their habits. Potential reasons for this could include the COVID-19 pandemic forcing children inside, increased popularity in video games, and an increase in social anxiety due to the pandemic. By focusing my project on swimming-related skills, I hope to increase children’s physical activity …

Language Influences Younger Generations: Social Media Affects Students In More Ways Than One, Charlie Torrecillas

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Social Media has many positive effects but can also have many negative effects. Social Media is targeted more towards a younger audience. With social media being targeted to a younger audience, this can also affect their language and communication skills as well as their mental health. The purpose of this paper is to look at the effects social media can have with regards to language and communication. The paper also highlight mental health and how language, communication and mental health are connected. This paper is more focused on looking at the effects it has on students within the United States, …

Sars-Cov-2 Seroprevalence In Pregnant Women In Kilifi, Kenya From March 2020 To March 2022, Angela Koech, Geoffrey Omuse, Alex Mugo, Isaac Mwaniki, Joseph Mutunga, Moses Mukhanya, Onesmus Wanje, Grace Mwashigadi, Geoffrey Katana, Marleen Temmerman

Centre of Excellence in Women and Child Health

Background: Seroprevalence studies are an alternative approach to estimating the extent of transmission of SARS-CoV-2 and the evolution of the pandemic in different geographical settings. We aimed to determine the SARS-CoV-2 seroprevalence from March 2020 to March 2022 in a rural and urban setting in Kilifi County, Kenya.

Methods: We obtained representative random samples of stored serum from a pregnancy cohort study for the period March 2020 to March 2022 and tested for antibodies against the spike protein using a qualitative SARS-CoV-2 ELISA kit (Wantai, total antibodies). All positive samples were retested for anti-SARS-CoV-2 anti-nucleocapsid antibodies (Euroimmun, ELISA kits, NCP, …

Vision Paper: Advancing Of Ai Explainability For The Use Of Chatgpt In Government Agencies: Proposal Of A 4-Step Framework, Hui Shan Lee, Shankararaman, Venky, Eng Lieh Ouh

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

This paper explores ChatGPT’s potential in aiding government agencies, drawing from a case study based on a government agency in Singapore. While ChatGPT’s text generation abilities offer promise, it brings inherent challenges, including data opacity, potential misinformation, and occasional errors. These issues are especially critical in government decision-making.Public administration’s core values of transparency and accountability magnify these concerns. Ensuring AI alignment with these principles is imperative, given the potential repercussions on policy outcomes and citizen trust.AI explainability plays a central role in ChatGPT’s adoption within government agencies. To address these concerns, we propose strategies like prompt engineering, data governance, and …

Cue-Cot: Chain-Of-Thought Prompting For Responding To In-Depth Dialogue Questions With Llms, Hongru Wang, Rui Wang, Fei Mi, Yang Deng, Zezhong Wang, Bin Liang, Ruifeng Xu, Kam-Fai Wong

Research Collection School Of Computing and Information Systems

Large Language Models (LLMs), such as ChatGPT, greatly empower dialogue systems with strong language understanding and generation capabilities. However, most of the previous works prompt the LLMs to directly generate a response based on the dialogue context, overlooking the underlying linguistic cues about the user status exhibited in the context. Such in-depth dialogue scenarios are challenging for existing LLMs to figure out the user’s hidden needs and respond satisfactorily through a single-step inference. To this end, we propose a novel linguistic cue-based chain-of-thoughts (Cue-CoT), which enhances the LLMs inference with an intermediate reasoning step to find cues exhibited in the …

Transferability Of Tsetse Habitat Models Between Different Regions In Kenya And Rwanda, Stella Gachoki, Anton Vrieling, Thomas A. Groen, Andrew Skidmore, Daniel Masiga

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Accurate and reliable information on the distribution of tsetse habitats is crucial for the effective management of African Trypanosomiasis in sub-Saharan Africa. However, conducting large-scale surveillance of tsetse flies to develop distribution maps is impractical due to vast areas infested and limited resources available. To address this challenge, we evaluated the applicability of tsetse habitat models developed in the intensively sampled Shimba Hills National Reserve in Kenya for both the wet and the dry season, to two other regions in Kenya (Ruma National Park and Nguruman Conservancy) and one region in Rwanda (Akagera National Park). The models utilized satellite-based estimates …

Microsporidia Mb In The Primary Malaria Vector Anopheles Gambiae Sensu Stricto Is Avirulent And Undergoes Maternal And Horizontal Transmission, Godfrey Nattoh, Brenda Onyango, Edward Edmond Makhulu, Diana Omoke, Lilian Mbaisi Ang’Ang’O, Luna Kamau, Maxwell Machani Gesuge, Eric Ochomo, Jeremy Keith Herren

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: The demonstration that the recently discovered Anopheles symbiont Microsporidia MB blocks malaria transmission in Anopheles arabiensis and undergoes vertical and horizontal transmission suggests that it is a promising candidate for the development of a symbiont-based malaria transmission-blocking strategy. The infection prevalence and characteristics of Microsporidia MB in Anopheles gambiae sensu stricto (s.s.), another primary vector species of malaria in Kenya, were investigated. Methods: Field-collected females were confirmed to be Microsporidia MB-positive after oviposition. Egg counts of Microsporidia MB-infected and non-infected individuals were used to infer the effects of Microsporidia MB on fecundity. The time to pupation, adult sex ratio …

Companion Crops Alter Olfactory Responses Of The Fall Armyworm (Spodoptera Frugiperda) And Its Larval Endoparasitoid (Cotesia Icipe), Emmanuel Peter, Amanuel Tamiru, Subramanian Sevgan, Thomas Dubois, Segenet Kelemu, Kerstin Kruger, Baldwyn Torto, Abdullahi Yusuf

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: The fall armyworm (FAW), Spodoptera frugiperda, is a devastating invasive pest and a threat to food security in Africa, with yield losses of 20–50%. Recent studies highlighted the importance of cereal crops such as maize and sorghum as the most preferred host plants for FAW oviposition. In the current work, we investigated the olfactory responses of FAW and its key larval endoparasitoid Cotesia icipe to odours from the preferred host (maize) in the presence of six potential companion crops including beans, groundnut, sweet potato, greenleaf- and silverleaf desmodium, and cassava. We hypothesized that odours released by companion crops in …

Characterization Of Tungiasis Infection And Morbidity Using Thermography In Kenya Revealed Higher Disease Burden During Covid-19 School Closures, Lynne Elson, Abneel K. Matharu, Naomi Riithi, Paul Ouma, Francis Mutebi, Hermann Feldmeier, Jürgen Krücken, Ulrike Fillinger

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Background: Tungiasis is a neglected tropical skin disease caused by the sand flea Tunga penetrans. Female fleas penetrate the skin, particularly at the feet, and cause severe inflammation. This study aimed to characterize disease burden in two highly affected regions in Kenya, to test the use of thermography to detect tungiasis-associated inflammation and to create a new two-level classification of disease severity suitable for mapping, targeting, and monitoring interventions. Methods: From February 2020 to April 2021, 3532 pupils age 8–14 years were quasi-randomly selected in 35 public primary schools and examined for tungiasis and associated symptoms. Of the infected pupils, …

Dynamic Factor Copula Models With Estimated Cluster Assignments, Dong Hwan Oh, Andrew John Patton

Research Collection School Of Economics

This paper proposes a dynamic multi-factor copula for use in high-dimensional time series applications. A novel feature of our model is that the assignment of individual variables to groups is estimated from the data, rather than being pre-assigned using SIC industry codes, market capitalization ranks, or other ad hoc methods. We adapt the k-means clustering algorithm for use in our application and show that it has excellent finite-sample properties. Applying the new model to returns on 110 US equities, we find around 20 clusters to be optimal. In out-of-sample forecasts, we find that a model with as few as five …

Emotion Regulation Flexibility: Investigating Perseverative Thinking As A Novel Context, Beatris Garcia

Arts & Sciences Graduate Student Theses and Dissertations

Emotion regulation (ER) flexibility is a rapidly evolving field within affective science. Current advances have identified context sensitivity as a leading method for measuring ER flexibility, largely focusing on affectivity and situational control as markers of context. In this study, we propose an innovative approach to expand the list of contextual features tied to ER flexibility by using a framework based on Perseverative Thinking (PT). We examined seven PT dimensions, including pleasantness, repetitiveness, self-focus, other-focus, certainty, controllability, and temporal orientation, along with six ER strategies: reappraisal, acceptance, problem solving, expressive suppression, distraction, and cognitive avoidance. Once a day over the …

Utilizing The Genetic Potentials Of Traditional Rice Varieties And Conserving Rice Biodiversity With System Of Rice Intensification Management, Yheni Dwiningsih

Crop, Soil and Environmental Sciences Faculty Publications and Presentations

The genetic potentials of rice cultivars will need to be expressed to their fullest if global rice production is to be expanded enough by 2050 to meet the increased demand of the expanding population while the availability of land and water per capita dwindles. New and ‘improved’ rice varieties have contributed greatly to increased production over the past 50 years, but the rate of rice yield increase based on genetic changes has declined in recent decades compared with the early years of the Green Revolution. In fact, many rice consumers continue to prefer to consume ‘traditional’ rice varieties (referred to …

The New Candian Defence: The Impact Of Undrip Article 30 On Canadian Domestic Defence Strategy, Preston Jordan Lim

Faculty Publications

Article 30 of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples articulates a general ban on military activities that take place on Indigenous territory. Despite the potentially significant consequences of article 30 for Canadian defence policy, few scholars have devoted serious attention to the article. This article will fill that gap by discussing the meaning of article 30 and suggesting approaches to implementation that the Canadian state ought to adopt. This article argues that, far from constraining Canadian defence strategy, article 30 may well serve as a catalyst, encouraging Canadian defence planners to take a more community-based approach …

Identifying And Supporting Financially Vulnerable Women Experiencing Economic Abuse: A Grounded Theory Approach, Leslie Book, Ann Kayis-Kumar, Youngdeok Lim, Jack Noone, Michael Walpole, Jan Breckenridge

Faculty Publications

This study extends the literature by exploring the role of pro bono tax clinics within the social impact ecosystem with a focus on the experiences of women in financial distress who are otherwise unable to access professional tax advice. Using clinic data derived from a pro bono tax advisory clinic, this article finds that 58 per cent of financially vulnerable women seeking pro bono tax services have experienced domestic and family violence (DFV), confirming again the link between financial stress and economic abuse. Yet only 3 per cent of these women were receiving domestic and family violence-related support, highlighting the …

Under Siege: Battling The Foes Of Emotional And Cognitive Distress, Ronald Coffen

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Understanding Burnout Through The Lens Of Teachers During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study, Rita Marie Garcia

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Abstract As teachers make their way back to the classroom for the 2023–2024 school year, teacher burnout is manifesting itself mentally, physically, and emotionally. In March 2020, the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 epidemic a global pandemic, which forced unwanted change in many organizations, especially education (Pressley, 2021). In the state of emergency schools were forced to close and new teaching methods were erected abruptly. The Robert Wood Johnson Foundation describes the professions of teaching as one of the most stressful occupations in the United States. Although stress is inevitable, the COVID-19 pandemic has created new stressors and demands …

Public Administration: The Essentials, Jayme L. Renfro

Faculty Book Gallery

Public Administration: The Essentials provides students with the conceptual foundation they need for an introduction to the field of public administration. This OER textbook covers the most critical issues in the field through the use of classic texts and theory as well as through modern examples. -- Provided by the publisher

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter, December 2023, University Of Northern Iowa. Gender & Sexuality Services

Gender & Sexuality Services Newsletter

In This Issue:

--- Community & Care
--- De-Stress Days
--- Message from Kalyani
--- Upcoming Events

Inculcating The Joy In Work Framework Within A Regional Children’S Hospital, Helen Julia Mha, Karen Clark Dnp, Mba, Rn, Nea-Bc

Department of Pediatrics

No abstract provided.

Draft Final Butte Treatment Lagoons (Btl) Groundwater Treatment System Routine Operations, Maintenance, And Monitoring (Om&M) Plan, Pioneer Technical Services, Inc.

Silver Bow Creek/Butte Area Superfund Site

No abstract provided.

Conquering And Combating Isolation, Nicholas Deanda

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Conquering and Combating Isolation initiative, implemented by an OMNI Resource Center intern, addressed severe isolation issues among individuals with mental health disabilities in Salinas, California. The macro-level problem encompassed the adverse effects of isolation on mental health and well-being. At the micro-level, the agency-specific issue was the heightened risk of unhealthy habits, depression and anxiety, and suicidal ideation among OMNI clients due to loneliness caused by homelessness, stigma, and a lack of social skills. The project entailed facilitating weekly peer support group discussions to minimize impacts of isolation, aiming for increased knowledge and skill-building. Findings revealed positive outcomes as …

Analyzing Family Strength & Needs Assessment, Jerusalen Valdez-De Leon

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Children from low-income Monterey County families aren’t receiving enough support, the Early Learning programs goal is to have kids ready for kindergarten all while including their families and supporting them both. The issue is getting parents involved, a way to get them involved is through the Family Needs and Strengths Assessment and through workshops aimed to serve families. The capstone addresses these two by shifting the way the assessment is done and bettering workshops for higher attendance. By doing so the agency found that having very little support while parents complete the assessment allows for raw results (94.9% to 89.3%). …

Life Review Workbook, Iris Garcia Estrada

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Visiting Nurse Association (VNA) & Hospice is a not for profit organization that provides a wide range of home health care services in the Monterey, San Benito, Santa Cruz and South Santa Clara counties. VNA & Hospice is a specialized sort of care for people facing a terminal disease, their families, and caregivers. VNA Volunteers, who volunteer their time to help others, are an important part of the agency's staff. Caregiver burnout is often the result of devoting considerable time and energy when caring for a loved one that is in hospice, and not allowing oneself to rest. The …

Intimate Partner Violence Prevention Curriculum For Teens, Oscar Plascencia-Herrera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Y.W.C.A is a non-profit with a variety of services. The intern will oversee the Youth Education Advocacy division, to work with the teen population. Y.E.A. is a program that focuses resources on youth advocacy to promote healthy relationships. The overall goal is to reduce intimate partner violence (IPV) in communities. The micro-level problem is addressed by increasing students' self-awareness, and knowledge of healthy relationships, while also teaching effective communication skills. The program is a 10-week curriculum with PowerPoint presentations, activities, videos, and scenarios/case studies. All students were given an intro exam and a final exam. Despite not all schools …

Enhancing Recovery With The Use Of Animals, Christina Martinez

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Avenues is a program designed to help adults lead happier and more productive lives by overcoming mental health and chemical dependency challenges. The problem is, participants are not fully prepared for independent living following these programs. The plan was to provide participants a therapeutic approach to gaining hands-on experience while combating symptoms of mental illness with the use of animals, with hopes that participants would be better prepared for life after leaving the program. If the project met the expected outcome, the agency would see a lower rate of participants returning to the program and a higher success rate of …

Improving Learning Environments In Schools Through Evidence Based Strategies, Brenda Cabrera

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

Blue Zones Project is a community led well- being initiative serving all of Monterey County. When a school participates it must earn a specific number of points by implementing and enforcing recommended policies and programs. Currently in Monterey County, 45 percent of adults have prediabetes or type 2 diabetes. A big focus of Blue Zones Project is diabetes education for students and their families. The approval process of a middle school in Salinas, Ca is currently in progress and will not be completed by the end of December 15, 2023. School Approval signifies a commitment to creating environments that prioritize …

Support Families’ Increased Access To Dental Care, Carmen Barron

Capstone Projects and Master's Theses

The Monterey County Oral Health Program is a program of the Monterey County Health Department housed under the Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention Unit. The Oral Health Program focuses on providing educational workshops to parents and classroom presentations to Kindergarten and first graders students. They provide services to schools that have a rate of 80% or higher of students enrolled in Free or Reduced-Price meals (FRPM). Studies show that minority students with low socioeconomic status (SES) have higher rates of untreated cavities in their primary teeth than non-Hispanic White students. The purpose of this project is to provide and educate …