Digital Commons Network^™

What’S The Vda Doing To Address The Virginia Dental Workforce Issue?, Shannon Jacobs

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia Dental Association (VDA) is addressing the dental workforce shortage in Virginia by forming the Virginia Dental Workforce Council. Chaired by Dr. Cynthia Southern, the council aims to develop recommendations to ensure all communities have the necessary dental workforce. Objectives include understanding regional needs, identifying causes and solutions, and creating sustainable pathways for dental professionals. The council's first meeting will be held in the spring, and updates will be provided in future VDA communications. Members are encouraged to share their experiences and insights.

What’S Changing In Virginia’S Dental Workforce?, Paul Logan

Virginia Dental Journal

The first page discusses recent data from 2022 licensure surveys of Virginia dentists and dental hygienists, revealing a two percent decrease in the number of dentists and an increase in dental hygienists to pre-pandemic levels. It highlights that most new dental hygienists are trained in Virginia, while many new dentists come from outside the state or the country. The data also shows demographic shifts, with younger dentists more likely to be female and the profession becoming more diverse. Regional disparities in dentist and hygienist concentrations are noted, with Northern Virginia having a higher dentist-to-population ratio compared to rural areas.

Virginia 2023 General Assembly Session Report, Chuck Duvall, Tripp Perrin, Missy Wesolowski

Virginia Dental Journal

The Virginia 2023 General Assembly session adjourned on February 25, with 819 bills passing both chambers and heading to the Governor. The Assembly will reconvene on April 12 to consider the Governor's actions. A "skinny budget" was passed, but further amendments are expected, potentially leading to a Special Session. New members joined the Assembly, and several incumbents announced retirements. Key legislation includes bills on dental licensure, botulinum toxin injections, human trafficking education, Medicaid fraud, and health insurance processes. The entire Assembly faces re-election in November.

Wire To Wire, Richard F. Roadcap Dds

Virginia Dental Journal

Dr. A. Wright Pond, inspired to become a dentist and orthodontist from a young age, balanced his dental career with a significant role in his brother Lennie Pond's NASCAR racing team. While completing his studies and starting his orthodontic practice, Dr. Pond contributed to the racing team by building car components, managing the fan club, and handling various administrative tasks. Lennie achieved notable success, including winning the Rookie-of-the-Year Award in 1973 and a first-place finish at the Talladega 500 in 1978. Despite the challenges and changes in NASCAR, Dr. Pond cherished the family collaboration and now advises new dentists to …

Va Dent J April, May And June 2023

Virginia Dental Journal

The April-June 2023 issue of the Virginia Dental Journal (Vol. 100, No. 2) offers a comprehensive look at key developments and challenges in the field of dentistry. This issue highlights the Virginia Dental Association’s successful advocacy efforts, including a 30% increase in Medicaid reimbursement rates and the passage of legislation allowing dentists to administer Botox for cosmetic purposes. Clinical insights feature prominently, with articles on oral pathology, advancements in endodontic sealers, and a comparative study of root canal treatments and implants. Readers are also treated to a compelling profile of Dr. Pond, whose career uniquely combines orthodontics and automotive racing. …

Post-Pandemic Obstacles Of Clinical Trial Participation In Covid-19 Studies, Tri Nguyen, Lindsay Gietzen

Pacific Journal of Health

The COVID-19 pandemic has created unique challenges for clinical trials, especially in participant recruitment and retention. As the pandemic subsides, post-pandemic trials continue to face barriers to participation. This study investigates obstacles encountered by participants in a Long COVID and COVID Recovered clinical trial conducted between January and August 2024. A Google Form survey was distributed to participants enrolled in the study, which was used to gather data on both demographic information and perceived obstacles to participation. Key obstacles identified included logistical issues such as childcare (33.3%), work flexibility (16.7%), and transportation/lodging (8.3%). In addition, participants indicated a lack of …

Parents Perceptions On The Efficacy Of Common Autism Interventions: A Case Study In Stockton And Lodi California, Jacqueline D. Fox, Lindsay Gietzen

Pacific Journal of Health

A neurological and developmental disability that impacts how people receive information and interact with outside stimuli is known as autism spectrum disorder (ASD). Autism can be characterized by a wide range of symptoms. For children diagnosed with autism, there are numerous therapy options available. The purpose of this study was to find out how effective parents perceived some of the most common autism interventions given to their children were. The interventions included ABA therapy, speech & language therapy, cognitive behavioral therapy, pharmacological, nutrition and educational therapies. Out of all the participants, only one reported a significant improvement in their child …

Muramyl Peptide Blend Ameliorates Intestinal Inflammation And Barrier Integrity In Caco-2 Cells, Dmytro M. Masiuk, Victor S. Nedzvetsky, Giyasettin Baydas

Karbala International Journal of Modern Science

Intestinal barrier function depends on epithelial adhesion, which restricts permeability and microbial invasion from the internal environment. Impairment of barrier integrity and gut function is closely linked to pro-inflammatory changes. Inflammation is often the primary factor that provokes gut function disorders. The anti-inflammatory potential of postbiotics has been reported in recent years. Muramyl peptides (MPs) are small signaling molecules that stimulate intracellular pathogen receptors and can regulate cell responses. However, the molecular mechanisms of MPs' effects on intestinal cells remain unknown. The study of MPs treatment on lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-challenged Caco-2 intestinal cells aimed to investigate the postbiotic effects on intestinal …

The Lived Experiences Of Black College Students And Counseling Based Upon Social Media Influences, Shamanda Burston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite social media's use as a tool for social influence and increase in mental health disclosures within Black communities, limited literature describes how Black college students, specifically, are utilizing social media related to mental health. This qualitative study includes a description of the influence of social media on the perception of counseling services for Black college students. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) through the lens of Kelman's social influence theory, the influence of social media on Black college students' perception of counseling services was explored. Currently enrolled Black or African American college or university students within the United States, over …

A River Of Resilience: Navigating Water Governance In The Colorado River Basin

Student Theses 2015-Present

This paper explores how climate change, the Southwestern North American megadrought, rapid population growth, the overallocation of water entitlements, and excessive consumption impact the Colorado River Basin’s water supply. The Colorado River basin will not be able to sustain its water supply for the forty million people depending on it across the seven basin states– Arizona, Colorado, California, Utah, New Mexico, Nevada, and Wyoming– in addition to the two Mexican states, Sonora and Baja California unless consumption is reduced to regulate the basin’s decreasing supply. Despite its critical role in supplying water to millions of people and the challenges posed …

Nlrb V. Starbucks Corp

2024 Decisions

National Labor Relations Board

A Comparative Analysis Of The County-Level Covid-19 Lockdown’S Impact On Child Sexual Abuse Rates, Aunastasia Fantasia Marie Zsidiewicz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

National reported rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown were significantly lower than expected. This quantitative study explored rates of CSA before and after the lockdown for 22 Michigan counties by considering socioeconomic status (SES) demographics to isolate the lockdown’s specific impact on reported CSA rates. The SES of the counties was measured using the Kuppuswamy scale, a numerical compilation of the mean occupation, education, and income of households within a given county. The Social Determinants of Health framework provided a blueprint for understanding the impact of exploring the different socioeconomic variables. This framework also helped …

Administrators’ Perceptions Of Minoritized Students’ Underrepresentation In K-8 Gate, Vernice Verona Sharpe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand SWSD administrators’ perceptions of the practices and identification criteria that exacerbated this underrepresentation, guided by a culturally responsive school leadership framework. For this basic qualitative design, eight SWSD administrators with direct knowledge of the GATE programs participated in semistructured interviews. Data analysis involved initial and axial coding, resulting in three key themes: limited cultural awareness among administrators, the importance of incorporating community perspectives, and the need to reevaluate traditional GATE identification practices. Based on these themes, it is recommended to enhance cultural competency training, to engage community members in decision-making, and …

Effectives Strategies Leaders Use To Engage Nurses In Safe Work Practices, Madeline Ortiz Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work-related injuries remain a significant challenge in the healthcare sector, leading to reduced productivity and financial losses despite improvements in workplace safety. Healthcare leaders are concerned that unsafe work practices negatively affect organizational performance and service quality. Grounded in Burn’s transformational leadership framework, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to explore effective strategies used by six nurse leaders in Southern United States use to encourage nurses to adopt safe work practices and foster a culture of safety. Through thematic analysis, three core themes were identified: implementing comprehensive training programs, establishing effective communication channels, and fostering a safety-first …

A Comparative Analysis Of The County-Level Covid-19 Lockdown’S Impact On Child Sexual Abuse Rates, Aunastasia Fantasia Marie Zsidiewicz

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

National reported rates of childhood sexual abuse (CSA) during the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown were significantly lower than expected. This quantitative study explored rates of CSA before and after the lockdown for 22 Michigan counties by considering socioeconomic status (SES) demographics to isolate the lockdown’s specific impact on reported CSA rates. The SES of the counties was measured using the Kuppuswamy scale, a numerical compilation of the mean occupation, education, and income of households within a given county. The Social Determinants of Health framework provided a blueprint for understanding the impact of exploring the different socioeconomic variables. This framework also helped …

Mock Trial Team Hosts Annual Chucky Mullins Invitational, Will Jones

University of Mississippi News

OXFORD, Miss. – Several University of Mississippi students earned honors during the fifth annual Chucky Mullins Invitational hosted recently by the university's Mock Trial Association at the School of Law.

Love As A Commitment Device : Evidence From A Cross-Cultural Study Across 90 Countries, Marta Kowal, Adam Bode, Karolina Koszałkowska, S. Craig Roberts, Biljana Gjoneska, David Frederick, Anna Studzinska, Dmitrii Dubrov, Dmitry Grigoryev, Toivo Aavik, Pavol Prokop, Caterina Grano, Hakan Çetinkaya, Derya Atamtürk Duyar, Roberto Baiocco, Carlota Batres, Yakhlef Belkacem, Merve Boğa, Nana Burduli, Ali R. Can, Razieh Chegeni, William J. Chopik, Yahya Don, Seda Dural, Izzet Duyar, Edgardo Etchezahar, Feten Fekih-Romdhane, Tomasz Frackowiak, Felipe E. García, Talia Gomez Yepes

School of Psychology

Given the ubiquitous nature of love, numerous theories have been proposed to explain its existence. One such theory refers to love as a commitment device, suggesting that romantic love evolved to foster commitment between partners and enhance their reproductive success. In the present study, we investigated this hypothesis using a large-scale sample of 86,310 individual responses collected across 90 countries. If romantic love is universally perceived as a force that fosters commitment between long-term partners, we expected that individuals likely to suffer greater losses from the termination of their relationships—including people of lower socioeconomic status, those with many children, and …

Environmental Assessment Of The Level Of Concentration Of Nickel And Lead In The Soil Of River Basins In The Samawa District, Turki Attia Tayeh, Anwar Sabah Muhammad

Uruk Journal of Human Sciences

The current study concluded by evaluating the level of concentration of nickel (Ni) and lead (Pb) in the soil of the river basins of Samawah District, north of Muthanna Governorate. Soil samples were taken from (12 sites) to two depths (0-30 cm) and (31-60 cm), in addition to the site (CP). (In the soil of the banks of the Euphrates River as a reference area for comparison and analysis purposes, the soil texture, its apparent and real density, and the percentage of porosity were measured. The research aims to determine the reasons for the high values ​​of the elements nickel …

Iraqi Efl College Learners’ Performanceof Adjective Placement Order, Hisham Adnan Almumar, Muhtaram Abdulwahid Al-Owaidi

Uruk Journal of Human Sciences

This paper deals with the preferable order of adjectives as one of the open classes in English grammar where various adjectives describe a following noun or pronoun. It also tends to identify the students' perception of the placement of patterns of adjectives. The problem of this study lies precisely in the sense that this subject may cause difficulty for Iraqi students in ordering multiple successful adjectives in a spoken or written form of the language. For this reason, it accounts for the causes of the dominant errors made by the undergraduates and their sources. To evaluate the student's strengths and …

The Globalization Of Human Rights: A Critical Assessment, Bimbo Ogunbanjo*, Omowonuola Okunnu

Uruk Journal of Human Sciences

This paper aims to argue for the incorporation of human rights within the globalization process. Human rights are defined as societal aspirations for freedom and well-being, inherently possessing a global dimension. The following sections seek to elucidate the globalization of human rights through various lenses. Firstly, this paper traces the historical evolution of rights concepts, spanning from early modernity to contemporary times, emphasizing the emergence of divergent definitions that coexist in tension within the modern world. The latter part of the paper will delve into the “globalization of rights,” focusing on the dissemination of universal human rights principles across diverse …

The Poetics Of War Between Protest And Patriotism: A Comparative Study Of Siegfried Sassoon And Abdul Razzaq Abdul Wahid’S Selected War Poems, Rana Jaber Obaid

Uruk Journal of Human Sciences

War Poetry is a literary genre that proceeded during the ages as a way of transmitting human feelings and estimations about war. The nonstop wars all over history makes it part of human existence. Though it is the same severe war everywhere and every time, the pen of the poets and the etymology that is used to designate this serious subject is what makes it diverse. Each poet characterizes war according to his peculiar experiences, attitudes, or interpretations. This study is built on comparison between two contradicted poets who wrote about war; The English poet Siegfried Sassoon

New York Times V. Sullivan: A Civil Rights Story, Samantha Barbas

Texas A&M Law Review

The 1964 Supreme Court decision in New York Times v. Sullivan established the “actual malice” rule in libel law, requiring that in order to win a libel suit, a public official must show that a defamatory statement was false and that the speaker made the statement knowing that it was false or “with reckless disregard of whether it was false or not.”

Sullivan involved a libel suit brought by segregationist Alabama officials against the New York Times (“Times”) and leaders of the civil rights movement. Sullivan arose from sectional battles over civil rights and integration in the 1960s. An all-white …

Murder On The Hearsay Trail, Jeffrey Bellin

Texas A&M Law Review

Judges, lawyers, and law students struggle to apply American evidence law’s most distinctive feature—the hearsay prohibition. The problem is that hearsay is difficult to master and somewhat dull. At the same time, hearsay evidence is ubiquitous and important. Every litigator has a story about a judge’s eccentric hearsay rulings; mine is the trial judge who waved his hand dismissively at hearsay objections, letting witnesses answer on the grounds that “I want to hear it.” And the case law is littered with appellate opinions scolding trial judges for erroneous hearsay rulings while introducing errors of their own.

That is just the …

Capital Trifurcation, William W. Berry Iii

Texas A&M Law Review

The death penalty is disappearing in the United States. Annual executions remain under 25 per year, and new capital sentences per year have not exceeded 75 in over a decade.

Over the past two decades, however, a new kind of death sentence has emerged—life without parole (“LWOP”). In practice, LWOP and death sentences are functionally equivalent, as most death row inmates die of natural causes in prison, not execution. For both economic and moral reasons, most states are not actively executing prisoners.

Therefore, capital sentencing proceedings that focus on life versus death neglect the more consequential question—life without parole versus …

Effectives Strategies Leaders Use To Engage Nurses In Safe Work Practices, Madeline Ortiz Gonzalez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Work-related injuries remain a significant challenge in the healthcare sector, leading to reduced productivity and financial losses despite improvements in workplace safety. Healthcare leaders are concerned that unsafe work practices negatively affect organizational performance and service quality. Grounded in Burn’s transformational leadership framework, the purpose of this qualitative pragmatic inquiry study was to explore effective strategies used by six nurse leaders in Southern United States use to encourage nurses to adopt safe work practices and foster a culture of safety. Through thematic analysis, three core themes were identified: implementing comprehensive training programs, establishing effective communication channels, and fostering a safety-first …

Perceptions Of The Skills Gap In Career And Technical Education In An Urban School District, Kyna Monic Eberhardt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A gap in career and technical education (CTE) skills can negatively influence outcomes for students who plan to enter the workforce or college following high school graduation. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of principals, counselors, teachers, and business leaders from different industries, about the skills gap among CTE students and their preparation for the workforce or college. Kathuria’s organizational alignment theory grounded this study. For this case study design, semistructured interviews were conducted with nine participants purposively selected from each stakeholder group: principals, counselors, teachers, and business leaders from different industries. All participants …

Development And Evaluation Of An Implementation Strategy To Increase Hpv Vaccination Among Underserved Youth Across Texas: A Protocol Paper, Paula M Cuccaro, Jihye Choi, Lara S Savas, Efrat K Gabay, Mayra Aguilar Mcbride, Amy Montelongo Eldridge, Timothy J Walker

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: All for Them is a theory-based and evidence-informed multilevel, multicomponent program delivered through schools to increase HPV vaccination among medically underserved youth across Texas. Given the potential logistical challenges of program implementation, understanding how to best support the implementation and sustainment of the program is critical. The overall goals of this study are twofold: 1) develop a multifaceted implementation strategy, Implementing All for Them (IM-AFT); and 2) evaluate the impact of IM-AFT on implementation outcomes for schools and healthcare providers to successfully implement All for Them in their respective settings.

METHODS: This study is underpinned by a comprehensive and …

The Lived Experiences Of Black College Students And Counseling Based Upon Social Media Influences, Shamanda Burston

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Despite social media's use as a tool for social influence and increase in mental health disclosures within Black communities, limited literature describes how Black college students, specifically, are utilizing social media related to mental health. This qualitative study includes a description of the influence of social media on the perception of counseling services for Black college students. Using interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA) through the lens of Kelman's social influence theory, the influence of social media on Black college students' perception of counseling services was explored. Currently enrolled Black or African American college or university students within the United States, over …

Administrators’ Perceptions Of Minoritized Students’ Underrepresentation In K-8 Gate, Vernice Verona Sharpe

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The purpose of this qualitative study was to understand SWSD administrators’ perceptions of the practices and identification criteria that exacerbated this underrepresentation, guided by a culturally responsive school leadership framework. For this basic qualitative design, eight SWSD administrators with direct knowledge of the GATE programs participated in semistructured interviews. Data analysis involved initial and axial coding, resulting in three key themes: limited cultural awareness among administrators, the importance of incorporating community perspectives, and the need to reevaluate traditional GATE identification practices. Based on these themes, it is recommended to enhance cultural competency training, to engage community members in decision-making, and …

Perceptions Of The Skills Gap In Career And Technical Education In An Urban School District, Kyna Monic Eberhardt

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

A gap in career and technical education (CTE) skills can negatively influence outcomes for students who plan to enter the workforce or college following high school graduation. The purpose of this qualitative case study was to explore the perceptions of principals, counselors, teachers, and business leaders from different industries, about the skills gap among CTE students and their preparation for the workforce or college. Kathuria’s organizational alignment theory grounded this study. For this case study design, semistructured interviews were conducted with nine participants purposively selected from each stakeholder group: principals, counselors, teachers, and business leaders from different industries. All participants …