Digital Commons Network^™

Demystifying The Virtualization Process: A Call For Standard Reporting Of Virtual Modifications To Evidence-Based Psychotherapies, Using The Frame Model, Derrecka M Boykin, Tracey L Smith, Barbara Rakel, Merlyn Rodrigues, Jennie Embree, Ken Woods, Angelic D Chaison, Lilian Dindo

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

The sudden onset of the coronavirus disease led to a rapid expansion of video telehealth to deliver mental healthcare. Although video telehealth was not a new clinical practice, there was limited guidance on how best to modify evidence-based psychotherapies (EBPs) for virtual delivery (a process also referred to as virtualization). The virtualization process for EBPs remains unclear as newly emerging reports on this topic do not consistently report modification decisions. This commentary calls attention to the need to improve documentation practices to allow a greater understanding of modifications needed to maximize the positive effects of EBPs transported to a virtual …

26th Annual Open Government Summit: Your Guide To The Access To Public Records Act & Open Meetings Act, Peter F. Neronha, Roger Williams University School Of Law

School of Law Conferences, Lectures & Events

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Incidence Of Sexual Assaults And Victim Services, Jessica Hunter

Student Works

The Impact of the Covid-19 Pandemic on the Incidence of Sexual Assaults and Victim Services

Purpose: The purpose of this literature review is to discuss incidents/rates of sexual assaults (SA), access to or accessibility of SA victim services, and the utilization of SA services during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Background: In the U.S., 1 in 5 women experience rape or attempted rape, while 1 in 4 men experience some form of sexual violence in their lifetime. Additionally, SAs affect roughly one-third of the world's population, making SA a prominent problem worldwide.

Methods: Electronic searches in CINHAL and MEDLINE were performed using …

Impact Of Covid-19 On Dental Students’ Mental Health Status And Perception Of Sars-Cov-2 Vaccine, Man Hung, Nicole Hablitzel, Sharon Su, Samantha Melnitsky, Amir Mohajeri

Pacific Faculty Work

The COVID-19 pandemic disrupted dental education significantly, forcing adaptations in both didactic and clinical curricula. This study evaluates the impact of COVID-19 on dental students’ mental health and perceptions of the SARS-CoV-2 vaccine. An anonymous online survey was administered to dental students at Roseman University of Health Sciences, focusing on health experiences and vaccination perceptions. Results showed 56.8% of students were concerned about their emotional health, 82.1% felt stressed, and 60.6% felt depressed. About 81.9% received the vaccine, with 75.5% believing it effective, though only 55.3% supported mandatory vaccination. The pandemic negatively impacted students’ emotional health, indicating a need for …

Antiformer: Graph Enhanced Large Language Model For Binding Affinity Prediction, Qing Wang, Yuzhou Feng, Yanfei Wang, Bo Li, Jianguo Wen, Xiaobo Zhou, Qianqian Song

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Antibodies play a pivotal role in immune defense and serve as key therapeutic agents. The process of affinity maturation, wherein antibodies evolve through somatic mutations to achieve heightened specificity and affinity to target antigens, is crucial for effective immune response. Despite their significance, assessing antibody-antigen binding affinity remains challenging due to limitations in conventional wet lab techniques. To address this, we introduce AntiFormer, a graph-based large language model designed to predict antibody binding affinity. AntiFormer incorporates sequence information into a graph-based framework, allowing for precise prediction of binding affinity. Through extensive evaluations, AntiFormer demonstrates superior performance compared with existing methods, …

The Interplay Between Gender And Duration Of Hospitalization Modulates Psychiatric Symptom Severity In Subjects With Long Covid-19, Alessio Simonetti, Antonio Restaino, Claudia Calderoni, Emanuela De Chiara, Antonio Maria D'Onofrio, Salvatore Lioniello, Giovanni Camardese, Delfina Janiri, Matteo Tosato, Francesco Landi, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Long COVID-19 is characterized by ongoing symptoms or prolonged or long-term complications of SARS-CoV-2 contraction which persist beyond 4 weeks from the initial onset of symptoms. Gender and duration of hospitalization (DH) are key risk factors for developing long COVID-19 syndrome, but their impact and interplay need further study. This research involved 996 long COVID-19 patients, and we compared the levels of general psychopathology, depression, agitated depression, anxiety, and medication use between hospitalized and non-hospitalized males and females. In the hospitalized patients, multivariate regressions assessed the impact of gender, DH, and the interaction of these variables. The females had higher …

Multi-Antigen Intranasal Vaccine Protects Against Challenge With Sarbecoviruses And Prevents Transmission In Hamsters, Ankita Leekha, Arash Saeedi, K M Samiur Rahman Sefat, Monish Kumar, Melisa Martinez-Paniagua, Adrian Damian, Rohan Kulkarni, Kate Reichel, Ali Rezvan, Shalaleh Masoumi, Xinli Liu, Laurence J N Cooper, Manu Sebastian, Courtney M Sands, Vallabh E Das, Nimesh B Patel, Brett Hurst, Navin Varadarajan

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immunization programs against SARS-CoV-2 with commercial intramuscular vaccines prevent disease but are less efficient in preventing infections. Mucosal vaccines can provide improved protection against transmission, ideally for different variants of concern (VOCs) and related sarbecoviruses. Here, we report a multi-antigen, intranasal vaccine, NanoSTING-SN (NanoSTING-Spike-Nucleocapsid), eliminates virus replication in both the lungs and the nostrils upon challenge with the pathogenic SARS-CoV-2 Delta VOC. We further demonstrate that NanoSTING-SN prevents transmission of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron VOC (BA.5) to vaccine-naïve hamsters. To evaluate protection against other sarbecoviruses, we immunized mice with NanoSTING-SN. We showed that immunization affords protection against SARS-CoV, leading to protection …

Teaching Staff Mathematics University: Catalyst Of The Emotional-Techno-Ontological Logic, Derling Jose Mendoza Velazco Dr, Magda Francisca Cejas Martínez Phd, Carmen Siavil Varguillas Carmona Phd, Mercedes Carolina Navarro Cejas Phd, Gina Silvana Venegas Álvarez M.Sc.

The Qualitative Report

The relevance of the study lies in the necessity to investigate the psycho-emotional state of teachers during the transition to remote teaching in universities and its impact on academic performance and emotional state of students. The aim of the research was to develop a theoretical approach to describe the emotional and techno-ontological logic of mathematics teachers during distance learning during the COVID-19 pandemic and the impact of their emotional state on the learning process. The study involved teachers and students from universities in Ecuador, both private and public. The study observed the behavior of teachers and students, analyzed the use …

A Comparative Analysis Of Sars-Cov-2 Variants Of Concern (Voc) Spike Proteins Interacting With Hace2 Enzyme, Jiawei Chen, Lingtao Chen, Heng Quan, Soongoo Lee, Kaniz Fatama Khan, Ying Xie, Qiaomu Li, Maria Valero, Zhiyu Dai, Yixin Xie

2020-Current year OA Pubs

In late 2019, the emergence of a novel coronavirus led to its identification as SARS-CoV-2, precipitating the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. Many experimental and computational studies were performed on SARS-CoV-2 to understand its behavior and patterns. In this research, Molecular Dynamic (MD) simulation is utilized to compare the behaviors of SARS-CoV-2 and its Variants of Concern (VOC)-Alpha, Beta, Gamma, Delta, and Omicron-with the hACE2 protein. Protein structures from the Protein Data Bank (PDB) were aligned and trimmed for consistency using Chimera, focusing on the receptor-binding domain (RBD) responsible for ACE2 interaction. MD simulations were performed using Visual Molecular Dynamics …

Changes At The Heart: Adapting Eucharist In The Time Of Pandemic, Marjorie M. Snipes

Proceedings of the annual meeting of the Southern Anthropological Society

During the initial COVID-19 pandemic period of 2020-2021, social institutions worldwide faced stress in adapting to immediate needs, among them places of worship which faced challenges from the disruption of social gatherings, religious services, tithing, and the celebration of key rituals. While many churches suspended or postponed rituals such as weddings, funerals, and baptisms, the practice of Eucharist presented a unique challenge. This ethnographic research focuses on mainline Christian churches in a semi-urban town in the state of Georgia (U.S.). It examines the ways that the experience of shutdown and social isolation affected the practice of Eucharist in Catholic, Baptist, …

Career Women’S Experiences Of Marital Discord And Domestic Violence During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Indonesia, Siti Mas’Udah, Lutfi Apreliana Megasari, Evan Doran, Rustinsyah, Muhammad Saud, Bagong Suyanto, Erna Setijaningrum

Journal of International Women's Studies

Domestic violence is a serious social problem, and the number of domestic violence cases are increasing each year in Indonesia. This study aims to explore marital discord and types and triggers of domestic violence experienced by career women who worked from home during the COVID-19 pandemic (2020-2021). In this qualitative research, the researchers interviewed professional working women who experienced domestic violence perpetrated by their husbands in East Java. This study shows that marital discord escalated into domestic violence due to complications experienced when they were staying at home because of the lockdown. Daily engagement between husbands and wives had an …

Use Of Population-Weighted Density Index For Coronavirus Spread In The United States, Huseyin Yuce, Hannah Stauss, Adrienne Persad

Publications and Research

Background: Understanding how population density affected the transmission of COVID-19 is vitally important, since crowded cities were the epicenters for the disease. Since human contact was the main cause of the spread, population-weighted densities have been shown to be a better measure than conventional densities, since the variation in density across subareas matters more than the density in the total area. Objectives: This study investigates the impact of population-weighted density and other demographics on the rate of COVID-19 spread in the United States. Methods: The study considers population-weighted density and many other demographics. The population-weighted density index is the weighted …

Gender-Specific Mental Health Outcomes In Central America: A Natural Experiment, Thea Nagasuru

Computer Science Summer Fellows

While COVID lockdown measures have had varying effects on the mental health of different demographics, several bodies of research have noted their disparate effect on women. Why is women's mental health more negatively impacted by lockdown measures, and how much more are they impacted than men? How can we predict and mitigate these negative effects on women? This paper aims to contribute to answering those questions by comparing COVID stringency measures and their effect on the gap in depression rates between men and women in two neighboring countries: Nicaragua and Honduras.

Effects Of Perceived Supervisor And Peer Support On Training Transfer For Frontline Registered Nurses, Carly Penn

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to examine the effect of perceived supervisor support as well as perceived peer support on training transfer behavior outcomes for frontline nursing staff in post-COVID 19 technology-mediated training environments.

This study was guided by the following primary research question: what effect does training delivery, perceived supervisor support, and perceived peer support have on training transfer behavior? The secondary question to further examination of these variables is: How do these factors interact to enhance or inhibit transfer in the context of nurse training?

This study sampled U.S. based registered nurses trained in COVID-19 related protocols. …

Abstracts From The 2024 Health Care Systems Research Network (Hcsrn) Annual Conference, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, Health Care Systems Research Network

Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews

The Health Care Systems Research Network (HCSRN) comprises 20 learning health systems with integrated care delivery and embedded research units. The network’s annual conference serves as a forum for research teams from member institutions to disseminate project findings, explore scientific collaborations, and share insights about population-based research practices that can measurably improve health and health care for all. The theme of this year’s conference was “Advancing high-quality, equitable research in the age of new health care technologies.” Abstracts presented at HCSRN 2024 are published in this issue supplement of the Journal of Patient-Centered Research and Reviews, the journal of record …

“We Rely On Each Other”: A Qualitative Exploration Of Rural Eastern Region Native American Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Robin M. Dawson Phd, Rn, Cpnp-Pc, Hunter M. Boehme, Stephen Criswell Ph.D., Julia Dunham-Thornton, Melissa S. Nolan Ph.D., Mph

Publications

Background: Native American communities suffered disproportionately negative effects during the COVID-19 pandemic, yet no research has explored the experiences of rural Eastern Region Native Americans. Methods: Informed by the Native Reliance Model and Indigenous Standpoint Theory, we conducted a qualitative descriptive project in the Spring and Summer of 2022; data included semi-structured interviews and focus groups with 24 individuals representing five South Carolina tribal groups. Findings: Thematic analysis yielded four emergent themes: 1) “Let's just finish the Indians off”: Pandemic distrust rooted in historical and contemporary Native American experiences; 2) “We have been misled”: Making sense of conflicting public health …

A Transcendental Phenomenological Study Exploring How Licensed Marriage And Family Therapists Describe The Emotional Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Melissa Lund

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative, phenomenological study was to describe the experiences of Licensed Marriage and Family Therapists (LMFT) in private practice during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study was viewed through the lens of resilience theory, which suggests that an individual's ability to adapt and overcome adverse experiences is based on their individual level of resilience. Eight LMFTs varying in demographics, such as age, gender, and ethnicity, as well as length of time in practice participated in individual interviews exploring their lived experiences during the pandemic. The study's questions aimed to gain a better understanding of the emotional impact of …

Left Behind In Lockdown: Covid-19 And The Denver Unhoused Community, Lucy Briggs

The Geographical Bulletin

The population experiencing homelessness in Denver, Colorado, increased by nearly 15% from 2018 to 2019. This trend, combined with the SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) pandemic of 2020, led to a distinct crisis for unhoused communities. This research attempted to answer the question, “How has COVID-19 impacted the locational strategies and spatial patterns of the Denver unhoused population in relation to public spaces and resources in the city core?” More specifically, this research has three objectives: (1) To explore the impact of COVID-19 on the shelter availability in Denver, (2) to develop an understanding of COVID-19’s impact upon public restrooms in Denver, and …

A Crisis In Clinical Research, David S Hong, Patricia Lorusso, Mario Sznol

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

The clinical research pipeline is critical to ensuring continued development of novel treatments that can offer patients with cancer safe and effective options. Unfortunately, progress has slowed since the COVID-19 pandemic due to uncovered, systemic inefficiencies across critical processes. Towards initiating discussion on how to reinvigorate clinical research, the Society for Immunotherapy of Cancer (SITC) hosted a virtual summit that characterized issues and formed potential solutions. This commentary serves to highlight the crisis facing clinical research as well as stimulate field-wide discussion on how to better serve patients into the future.

Barriers To And Facilitators Of Implementing Colorectal Cancer Screening Evidence-Based Interventions In Federally Qualified Health Centers: A Qualitative Study, Emanuelle M Dias, Joe R Padilla, Paula M Cuccaro, Timothy J Walker, Bijal A Balasubramanian, Lara S Savas, Melissa A Valerio-Shewmaker, Roshanda S Chenier, Maria E Fernandez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Background: There is an urgent need to increase colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) uptake in Texas federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), which serve a predominantly vulnerable population with high demands. Empirical support exists for evidence-based interventions (EBIs) that are proven to increase CRCS; however, as with screening, their use remains low in FQHCs. This study aimed to identify barriers to and facilitators of implementing colorectal cancer screening (CRCS) evidence-based interventions (EBIs) in federally qualified health centers (FQHCs), guided by the Consolidated Framework for Implementation Research (CFIR).

Methods: We recruited employees involved in implementing CRCS EBIs (e.g., physicians) using data from a …

America Is Unprepared To Meet The Needs Of Its Growing Older Adult Population, Sierra Kaplan

Population Health Research Brief Series

In 2030, nearly 73 million Americans will be aged 65 years or older. As Americans continue to have fewer children than in the past, the number of older adults will outnumber children. Thus, fewer young adults will be around to support and care for the older adult population. Coupled with COVID-19 pandemic-driven disruptions to the healthcare industry, America’s health and aging care system is unprepared to support its large and growing older adult population. Over time, we will see increased health care scarcity and inequality in the distribution of elder care services, especially with continued healthcare worker shortages and drastic …

‘A Storm Is Coming:' The New York Times Coverage Of The Covid-19 Pandemic In American Prisons, Katarzyna Celinska, Amina Cheboubi

Publications and Research

In this research, we analyzed the content of 171 articles published between March and August 2020 in the New York Times (NYT) on COVID-19 in American correctional institutions. We observed that the NYT coverage decreased significantly over 6 months. Our analysis uncovered 8 themes within two broader frames: institutional and systemic inequity. Although the themes are not mutually exclusive, we argue that ‘Responding to COVID-19,’ ‘A storm is Coming,’ ‘Collective Experience,’ and ‘Critiquing Prison Conditions’ are within the institutional framing. ‘Redefining Public Safety,’ ‘Categorizing Prisoners,’ ‘Doing Injustice,’ and ‘Making it as a Celebrity’ are the themes that highlight systemic inequity, …

Caregiver Recruitment Strategies For Interventions Designed To Optimize Transitions From Hospital To Home: Lessons From A Randomized Trial, Allison M Gustavson, Molly J Horstman, Jodie A Cogswell, Diane E Holland, Catherine E Vanderboom, Jay Mandrekar, William S Harmsen, Brystana G Kaufman, Cory Ingram, Joan M Griffin

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Challenges to recruitment of family caregivers exist and are amplified when consent must occur in the context of chaotic healthcare circumstances, such as the transition from hospital to home. The onset of the COVID-19 pandemic during our randomized controlled trial provided an opportunity for a natural experiment exploring and examining different consent processes for caregiver recruitment. The purpose of this publication is to describe different recruitment processes (in-person versus virtual) and compare diversity in recruitment rates in the context of a care recipient's hospitalization. We found rates of family caregiver recruitment for in-person versus virtual were 28% and 23%, respectively …

Iga Nephropathy Secondary To Covid-19 Infection - A Case Report, Sanjivani Shrestha, Sumanth Kumar Bandaru, Man Kit Michael Siu, Silvia Malvica, Joselito Cabacar

Journal of Community Hospital Internal Medicine Perspectives

We present a case of a 73-year-old African American lady with COVID-19 infection who developed Acute Kidney Injury (AKI) and significant proteinuria. Renal biopsy showed IgA nephropathy. Patient was eventually diagnosed with IgA nephropathy secondary to COVID Infection. This unique case highlights the complexity of renal involvement in COVID-19. Notably, the onset of IgA nephropathy in the patient occurred several weeks after her COVID-19 diagnosis, deviating from the typical synpharyngitic presentation with respiratory symptoms. This article contributes to the growing body of evidence regarding renal complications associated with COVID-19 and highlights the need for vigilance in assessing and managing renal …

Which Types Of People Were Least Likely To Get The Covid-19 Vaccine?, Xue Zhang, Shannon M. Monnat

Population Health Research Brief Series

Vaccine hesitancy is a long-standing challenge that worsened during the COVID-19 pandemic. Understanding the reasons behind different types of vaccine hesitancy is crucial for developing effective vaccine messaging strategies that can increase confidence in and uptake of future vaccines. This brief summarizes the findings from a study that used data from the 2022 National Wellbeing Survey on 7,612 U.S. adults aged 18-64 to identify characteristics of adults who were least likely to get the COVID-19 vaccine and the characteristics associated with different types of vaccine hesitancy. The authors considered three non-mutually exclusive types of vaccine hesitancy: 1) watchful (concerned about …

Vaccine-Sensitive Allocation - Another Divide To Divide Us?, Joelle Robertson-Preidler, Olivia Schuman

Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Is Telehealth Equivalent To In-Person Intervention? A Replication And Extension Of Peers For Adolescents, Elyse Jeannine Adler

Dissertations (1934 -)

One commonly requested area of support for autistic youth centers around teaching and maintaining social skills, as social communication differences are a core feature of autism spectrum disorder. During the COVID-19 pandemic, many healthcare services transitioned to telehealth, and some caregivers were concerned about if telehealth services were efficacious. There is a growing body of literature supporting the effectiveness of in-person social skills interventions, however research on telehealth administration of social skills intervention is more limited. This study aimed to evaluate if the telehealth version of PEERS for Adolescents has similar effects for autistic youth as the originally developed in-person …

Predicting Critical Risks And Long-Term Impact Of Covid-19 Patients With Substance Use Disorder (Sud) Using Machine Learning, Jiawei Wu

Dissertations (1934 -)

The crisis of substance use disorder (SUD), a problematic pattern of substance use that causes significant impairment or distress, is one of the most devastating threats to the public health system in the United States and it is ongoing. Opioid dependency or opioid overdose is a common drug use disorder and the number of deaths due to opioid overdose is increasing significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic because opioid use impacts mostly human respiratory, increases vulnerability to COVID-19, and further leads to higher morbidity and mortality. Other substance use disorders, including alcohol, cocaine, cannabis, and tobacco, will also exacerbate both physical …

Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells Control Homeostasis Of Megakaryopoiesis, Florian Gaertner, Marco Colonna, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

Platelet homeostasis is essential for vascular integrity and immune defence

The Need For Localized, Socio-Economic Policy Measures For Controlling A Pandemic: An Empirical Study Of Covid-19 In India, Ashish Gupta, Prashant Das, Dongshin Kim

All Faculty Open Access Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic, a black swan event, created an unprecedented global health hazard and disrupted global economic activities. During the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic, various governments announced lockdowns. India went under lockdown from 25 March 2020 for 21 days. These lockdowns disrupted the social fabric and economic activities. We examined the demographic and socio-economic determinants of COVID-19 infections and deaths across over 400 districts in India. Using statistical methods, we observed that the infection patterns demonstrate localized characteristics across districts. Areas with a larger male population and higher economic activity witnessed higher infection rates. Districts with more agricultural …