Digital Commons Network^™

Abolition Of What?, Christopher Lewis, Adaner Usmani

Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology

This Article defends a structural theory of the brutality of the carceral state. We argue that American penal systems are destined to be inhumane, barring sweeping changes to the social and economic order of the United States; and that prison and police abolition are neither sufficient nor necessary to bring these kinds of changes about.

This theory stands on two premises. First, we defend The Principle of Less Eligibility, which holds that it is politically infeasible for capitalist democracies to permit the incentives to defy the law to exceed those to obey it. As we show, the Principle of Less …

Community Health Workers To Strengthen Hiv Care Continuum And Prep Delivery In The Us/Hics: A Scoping Review, Vanessa Abigail Nunez

Public Health Theses

Introduction: With the ongoing global HIV/AIDS burden, community-based service delivery models are increasingly recognized, with community health workers (CHWs) at the forefront. In high-income countries (HICs) like the United States, CHWs have long served marginalized communities, gaining recent legislative attention. Despite this, there's still a need for comprehensive evidence on CHW integration in healthcare delivery.

Methodology: We conducted a scoping review to gather available evidence on community health workers (CHWs) and their impact on HIV outcomes in HICs, and to identify evidence gaps in the use of community-based HIV/PrEP services in HICs. Using the American Public Health Association’s definition of …

Investigating Antimicrobial Producing Bacteria Within The Soil, Adam Zwawi

A with Honors Projects

Genetic sequencing techniques used to identify soil antibiotic bacteria

Rna Therapeutics For Fibrolamellar Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Christoph Neumayer

Student Theses and Dissertations

Fibrolamellar hepatocellular carcinoma (FLC) is a rare liver cancer characterized by a recurrent fusion of the heat shock protein DNAJB1 and the catalytic subunit of protein kinase A (PRKACA). Due to limited efficacy of conventional treatments such as chemotherapy and radiation my work explored new therapeutic options. As DNAJB1::PRKACA is known to initiate tumorigenesis, I reasoned that it would be an ideal target for a therapeutic. However, it was not known if FLC tumors are still dependent on DNAJB1::PRKACA or if cells achieved independence of the initial oncogene. To test if FLC is dependent on the oncokinase I screened short …

‘News Reporting On Possible Origins Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Critical Review And Case Study’, Raya M. Fanuzzi

Undergraduate Theses, Professional Papers, and Capstone Artifacts

This project is a critical analysis of news reports that discuss the potential origins of the 'COVID-19' pandemic for the purposes of identifying themes and trends in the actual reporting. Around 500 news reports published in the U.S. were analyzed and over 100 of them were selected for the critical review. Articles were found using 'Access News Archive' and Google search engine. Original methods for analyzing and reviewing articles were developed and used. A case study is included aside from the review which focuses specifically on trends in fact-check reporting during the pandemic.

Reducing Wait Times In The Medical Clinic Of The Homeless Intake Center: A Quality Improvement Project, Otuodichinma Christy Nwankpa, Otuodichinma Christy Nwankpa

DNP Scholarly Projects

Background: Homelessness in the U.S. is a critical issue, with New York City experiencing significant challenges due to an increasing number of families requiring shelter. The Department of Homeless Services (DHS-NYC) faces operational inefficiencies, particularly in the medical clinic at the intake center, leading to prolonged wait times.

Local Problem: Families with children experience long wait times in the DHS-NYC medical clinic, which impacts their overall health and well-being. Reducing these wait times is essential for improving service delivery and families satisfaction.

Purpose:

This quality improvement project aims to reduce wait times for families with children at the medical clinic …

Financial Implications Associated With Laboratories Performing Laboratory Developed Tests For Medicare And Commercial Patients, Summer Hartig

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Objective: To quantify missed reimbursements associated with specific CPT codes for Laboratory Developed Tests (LDTs) via polymerase chain reaction (PCR) in the United States during 2021.

Study Design: Quantitative, retrospective observational study to identify the dollar amount of missed reimbursements associated with 19 specific CPT codes billed for Medicare patients who had LDTs performed via PCR in the United States in 2021.

Data Sources: 19 specific CPT codes from Medicare and Commercial patients with LDT PCR testing performed using 2021 Meridian MarketScan data.

Key Results: Medicare represented 1.7% of the sample size with a potential lost revenue of $1M where …

Mema Matures: Minnesota Emergency Law Post-Covid, Liz Kramer

Mitchell Hamline Law Review

No abstract provided.

The New Eu-Us Data Protection Framework's Implications For Healthcare, Charlotte A. Tschider, Marcelo Corrales Compagnucci, Timo Minssen

Faculty Publications & Other Works

In July 2023, the United States and the European Union introduced the Data Privacy Framework (DPF), introducing the third generation of cross-border data transfer agreements constituting adequacy with respect to personal data transfers under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) between the European Union (EU) and the US. This framework may be used in cross-border healthcare and research relationships, which are highly desirable and increasingly essential to innovative health technology development and health services deployment. A reliable model meeting EU adequacy requirements could enhance the transfer of patient and research participant data. While the DPF might present a familiar terrain …

Program Evaluation Case Study: Infectious Disease Reporting Training Program Evaluation, Emily Sekkath Veedu

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

The Lexington-Fayette County Health Department (LFCHD) has developed an educational program aimed at Fayette County Public Schools (FCPS) health and athletics staff members to ensure timely reporting and action in the event of an infectious disease outbreak (4). The program was implemented after a methicillin-resistant staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) outbreak occurred in a Kentucky community, with a high school football team presenting several of the cases (4). It was noted by a school nurse that many people attending an informational session lacked knowledge regarding infection control, suggesting a need for intervention in this community. I have evaluated this program in the …

Recent Trends In Stimulant Prescribing In Kentucky, 2021-2023, Jordan Shannon

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

Abstract

Introduction

Prescription stimulants have a long history of clinical use dating as far back as the 1930s. In the United States stimulant prescribing rates have steadily climbed over the last 3 decades. The primary objective is to describe recent (2021-2023) prescribing trends of stimulant medications in the Commonwealth of Kentucky

Methods

Prescription data collected from Kentucky’s prescription drug monitoring (PDMP) database known as the Kentucky All Schedule Prescription Electronic Reporting System (KASPER). Annual and quarterly trends in stimulant prescribing between 2021-2023 were calculated, examined by age, sex, and geographic location.

Results

Stimulant prescribing increased by ~15% where the majority …

Addressing Ip And Technology Challenges To Pandemic Protection: A Need For Global Coordination To Promote National Security, Cynthia M. Ho

Faculty Publications & Other Works

This Artie!£ argues that effective national security mandates protection against the spread of infectious diseases, which requires addressing intellectual property (IP) and technology obstacles. Without modification, IP laws can bar the manufacture of needed treatments by anyone besides the IP owner and its licensees. Although there was some recognition during the COVID-19 pandemic that existing IP laws should be modified, there was strong resistance not only by IP-owning companies, but also by individual countries that impeded the ability to manufac­ture needed vaccines during the height of the pandemic. Many global leaders have recognized that future pandemics are inevitabw and that …

Biol 606-102: Applied Bioprocessing & Immunology Based Therapies, John Yarotsky

Biology Syllabi

No abstract provided.

Effectiveness Of Diversion Tube On Peripheral Blood Culture Contamination Rates From Intravenous Catheters In A Community Hospital Emergency Department, Anne Meginniss

DNP Scholarly Projects

BACKGROUND: Obtaining blood cultures is routine care for patients who are suspected to have sepsis. Contaminated blood cultures can lead to increased healthcare costs for patients suspected of sepsis. Reducing contaminated specimens could improve the quality of care delivered as well as increase patient satisfaction.

AIM: This quality improvement project aimed to reduce the number of contaminated blood cultures in a community hospital emergency department by using an initial specimen diversion tube to meet the new national benchmark of below 1% contamination rate.

METHODS: Twenty-seven diversion specimens were collected over an eight-week period via initial intravenous catheter insertion in a …

Enhancing Safety Surveillance During Clinical Trials: The Development Of A Safety Data Review Handbook To Support Pharmacovigilance Clinicians, Lauren Wilson

DNP Scholarly Projects

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Pharmacovigilance (PV) Sciences include activities related to safety surveillance of pharmaceutical products, and is critical for developing safe and effective medications, vaccines and medical devices. Safety monitoring starts with preclinical research and continues through clinical trial and post marketing phases. PV scientists ensure patient safety during clinical trials through regular review and analysis of safety data. Regulations have become increasingly complex, leading to inadequately defined methods for reviewing large clinical trial safety datasets. Inconsistent safety data review (SDR) practices can result in delayed detection of adverse drug reactions (ADRs) or safety signals.

METHODS: This quality improvement project used …

Covid-19 Sports Competition Lockdowns, Return-To-Play Decisions, And Participation Requirements: A Retrospective Review And Future Medicolegal Framework, Matthew J. Mitten, Laurel C. Montag, Abigail C. Barnett

Marquette Sports Law Review

No abstract provided.

Refractory Neurogenic Cough Management: The Non-Inferiority Of Soluble Steroids To Particulate Suspensions For Superior Laryngeal Nerve Blocks, Hisham Abdou

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Purpose: Superior laryngeal nerve (SLN) block utilizing triamcinolone (TA) or methylprednisolone acetate (MP) has been described as an efficacious treatment for refractory cough (RC). Particulate corticosteroid injection in the neck carries a risk of large-particle embolization and devastating neurologic sequela in the event of inadvertent intravascular injection. Herein, we compare the efficacy of a soluble steroid (dexamethasone, SS) with particulate steroids (PS) in reducing cough severity in RC-patients.Materials and Methods: Patient charts for those receiving SLN blocks by fellowship-trained laryngologists for the sole indication of RC were reviewed. Drug/dose, timing/laterality, and adjuvant treatments were compared using chi-squared test. A paired …

Medicaid Coverage For Undocumented Children In Connecticut: A Political History, Chinye Ijeli

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

In the US, undocumented immigrants are barred from receiving coverage from the federal government for healthcare other than emergency services. States can offer government-funded health insurance to undocumented immigrants, but as of 2021, only six had. Forces standing in the way of other states implementing such coverage include nativism, racism, and fears about immigrants taking scarce jobs during economic downturns.In 2021, Connecticut passed S.B. 956, a bill extending Medicaid coverage to all low-income children up to the age of eight—regardless of immigration status—starting in 2023. This policy was the culmination of a twelve-year-old grassroots movement started by Connecticut Students for …

The Hardships Of Healthcare Among People With Lived Experiences Of Homelessness In New Haven, Ct, Brandon James Hudik

Yale Medicine Thesis Digital Library

Objectives: People with lived experiences of homelessness encounter barriers to accessing and maintaining appropriate healthcare. This project aims to: 1) identify how these barriers manifest in New Haven, CT; 2) examine the negative health and healthcare impacts such barriers may incur, including when people adapt to or try to overcome them; 3) examine the characteristics of positive experiences in accessing healthcare in order to inform future approaches to healthcare for this vulnerable population.

Methods: This study is a subanalysis of the Justice, Health, and Housing Study (JustHouHS) and draws on longitudinal, qualitative interviews with low-income New Haven residents who experienced …

Guideline For Screening Of Trichomonas Vaginalis Infections In The Correctional Setting, Nahirobi J. Madrid Antunez

Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) Scholarly Projects - Archive

Objective: This guideline project focused on creating a screening guideline for T. vaginalis that would benefit healthcare providers in a correctional healthcare setting for incarcerated females entering the facility.

Methods: A literature review was conducted. The PubMed and MEDLINE search engines, were used to obtain medical, biomedical and life sciences literature, and CINAHL for nursing and allied health resources, Governmental agency sites, such as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), were also explored. Guideline recommendations were extrapolated from the literature review, and then rated by, stakeholders.

Results: Several overarching themes were identified. Screening of asymptomatic women for T. …

Language Models For Rare Disease Information Extraction: Empirical Insights And Model Comparisons, Shashank Gupta

Theses and Dissertations--Computer Science

End-to-end relation extraction (E2ERE) is a crucial task in natural language processing (NLP) that involves identifying and classifying semantic relationships between entities in text. This thesis compares three paradigms for end-to-end relation extraction (E2ERE) in biomedicine, focusing on rare diseases with discontinuous and nested entities. We evaluate Named Entity Recognition (NER) to Relation Extraction (RE) pipelines, sequence-to-sequence models, and generative pre-trained transformer (GPT) models using the RareDis information extraction dataset. Our findings indicate that pipeline models are the most effective, followed closely by sequence-to-sequence models. GPT models, despite having eight times as many parameters, perform worse than sequence-to-sequence models and …

Effects Of Pancreatic Amylin On The Peripheral And Cns Immune Response In A Model Of Type-2 Diabetic Brain Injury, Edric Da'shon Winford

Theses and Dissertations--Neuroscience

Type-2 diabetes (T2D) is a metabolic disorder that increases the risk for cerebrovascular disease and dementia and is associated with the progression of Alzheimer's Disease; however, the mechanisms responsible for T2D-associated dementia are still poorly understood. T2D leads to alterations of the innate and adaptive immune response that contribute to its progression, but how these cells contribute to cognitive decline during T2D is unknown. As there are no approved therapeutics for T2D that modulate the immune response, it is important that we investigate how peripheral immune cells contribute to cognitive decline during T2D. Amylin is an amyloidogenic hormone synthesized and …

Contributions Of The Replication Initiator Protein Dnaa To Physiology And Virulence Of The Lyme Disease Spirochete, Andrew Krusenstjerna

Theses and Dissertations--Microbiology, Immunology, and Molecular Genetics

Borrelia burgdorferi, the etiological agent of Lyme disease, is the most prevalent vector-borne disease in the United States. The spirochetal population is naturally maintained by consistently cycling between Ixodid ticks and small vertebrates. To survive within these diverse niches, B. burgdorferi has evolved a unique physiology and regulatory network to sense and respond to environmental fluxes. Replication is a hallmark of the Lyme spirochete’s enzootic life cycle, specifically at the nymphal tick-to-vertebrate interface. The mechanisms and regulatory schema for the basic cellular processes in B. burgdorferi, or indeed any member of the phylum spirochaetota, are largely unknown. The central hypothesis …

The Performance Of Marginal Modeling Methods For Rare Events With Application To Opioid Overdose Mortality And Morbidity, Shawn Nigam

Theses and Dissertations--Epidemiology and Biostatistics

Opioid misuse is a nationwide epidemic, with Kentucky having one of the highest opioid overdose-related fatality rates across all US states. These rates have increased significantly over the past decade, with particularly large increases during the COVID-19 pandemic. This dissertation aims to study the behavior of these increases and the methods for the marginal modeling of count outcomes related to opioid overdose.

Opioid overdose-related fatality rates in Kentucky increased significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic. In this chapter, we characterize the changes in opioid overdose fatality rates in Kentucky and identify associations between potential factors and fatality rates. County-level opioid overdose …

Recovery Capital In A Justice-Involved Population: An Asset-Based Approach To Recovery And Community Reentry, Evan Joseph Batty

Theses and Dissertations--Sociology

The burden of the opioid epidemic demands further efforts to facilitate recovery, particularly for disadvantaged populations and those recently released from prison. After community reentry, individuals face a period of vulnerability as they adjust to new roles and responsibilities to meet their basic needs. Prison-based substance use disorder treatment (SUD Tx) programs provide support to help prepare individuals with SUD for their release and facilitate successful recovery goals after community reentry. This dissertation has three aims: (1) further the understanding of potential barriers and facilitators of recovery after community reentry, (2) assess how prison-levels of recovery capital influence recovery outcomes …

Advancing Dysphagia Screening: A Comparison Of Patient-Reported Outcome Measures And Bolus-Driven Screenings In Aspiration Prediction, Arica Amie Rusco

Theses and Dissertations--Communication Sciences and Disorders

It is known that dysphagia impacts an individual’s health and quality of life. Due to this, early identification of dysphagia is crucial. There are many different dysphagia screening tools with no consensus. This study aimed to compare the two most frequently used dysphagia screenings, a patient-reported outcome measure (PROM), the EAT-10, and bolus-driven swallow screening, the Yale Swallow Protocol, to determine if one tool is superior in aspiration prediction on a videofluoroscopic swallow study (VFSS). This study also aimed to discover the best cutoff score on the EAT-10 for aspiration prediction. A total of 66 participants were recruited after physician …

Impact Of Short-Distance Road Transportation On Horse Health, Erica Jacquay

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Horses are regularly transported across the United States; however, the reasons for travel, trip lengths, and management practices are not well characterized. While long distance transportation has been associated with increased incidences of health-related problems, the impact of short distance transportation on horse health is less understood. Notably, aged horses ( > 15 years) have an altered immune response following short-distance transportation, but this has yet to be compared to young horses. It is also unknown whether transportation stress would alter endocrine responses of horses with metabolic disorders, such as insulin dysregulation (ID) or pituitary pars intermedia dysfunction (PPID).

The objectives …

Genomic Studies Of The Equine Bloodworm, Strongylus Vulgaris, Nichol Ripley

Theses and Dissertations--Veterinary Science

Strongylus vulgaris is the most pathogenic nematode parasite of grazing horses worldwide. This gastrointestinal parasitic nematode is in the family Strongylidae under the subfamily Strongylinae, or Strongylins. While the epidemiology, complete life cycle, and high pathogenicity of the fourth and fifth larval stages of S. vulgaris are well established, we understand very little about its biology. This parasite is renowned for its unique life cycle and capacity to cause arterial damage, leading to significant health and economic impacts for the equine industry. It also is the most intensively documented Strongylin; however, S. vulgaris has yet to gain drug resistance as …

Employee Wellness Programs: A Promising Vehicle To Decrease Healthcare Cost And Improve Employee Health, Victoria Schaefer

Student Works

No abstract provided.

The Future Of Telehealth In Medical Licensing Regulations Post-Pandemic In The United States: A Comparison To The European Union And Australia, Jacquelyn Twaddle

Student Works

No abstract provided.