Digital Commons Network^™

Systemic Racism And Covid-19: Vulnerabilities With The U.S. Social Safety Net For Immigrants And People Of Color, Adam M. Butz, Jason E. Kehrberg

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

America has a mythologized reputation as an accommodative “melting pot” nation that welcomes individuals from all races and countries seeking improved quality of life and reduced material hardship. However, our U.S. social welfare system is more broadly characterized as underdeveloped, restrictive, and exclusionary, especially toward immigrants and people of color. Public health benefits (e.g., Medicaid), food assistance programs (e.g., SNAP), rental assistance (e.g., HCV/Section 8), and cash assistance (e.g., TANF) are oftentimes restricted for immigrants and racial minorities, making them more vulnerable to material hardship and more exposed to pandemic conditions under COVID-19. Moreover, these welfare restrictions are oftentimes rooted …

Fitting A Covid-19 Model Incorporating Senses Of Safety And Caution To Local Data From Spartanburg County, South Carolina, D. Chloe Griffin, Amanda Mangum

CODEE Journal

Common mechanistic models include Susceptible-Infected-Removed (SIR) and Susceptible-Exposed-Infected-Removed (SEIR) models. These models in their basic forms have generally failed to capture the nature of the COVID-19 pandemic's multiple waves and do not take into account public policies such as social distancing, mask mandates, and the ``Stay-at-Home'' orders implemented in early 2020. While the Susceptible-Vaccinated-Infected-Recovered-Deceased (SVIRD) model only adds two more compartments to the SIR model, the inclusion of time-dependent parameters allows for the model to better capture the first two waves of the COVID-19 pandemic when surveillance testing was common practice for a large portion of the population. We find …

Effect Of Anti-Interleukin-6 Agents On Psychopathology In A Sample Of Patients With Post-Covid-19 Syndrome: An Observational Study, Alessio Simonetti, Antonio Restaino, Evelina Bernardi, Ottavia Marianna Ferrara, Stella Margoni, Antonio Maria D'Onofrio, Federica Ranieri, Delfina Janiri, Vincenzo Galluzzo, Matteo Tosato, Georgios D Kotzalidis, Francesco Landi, Gabriele Sani

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Interleukin 6 (IL-6) receptor inhibitors tocilizumab and sarilumab have recently been approved for severe coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19). They also affect mood, even though their effect on the post-COVID-19 syndrome-related psychopathology still has to be investigated. The aim of this study was to investigate their effect on psychopathology in a sample of patients with post-COVID-19 syndrome. We included 246 patients (34% female, 66% male) aged 18–75 years who had been hospitalized for COVID. Patients were split into those who received anti-IL-6 receptor agents (Anti-IL-6-R, N = 88) and those who did not (Ctrl, N = 158). The former group was …

Features Of Acute Covid-19 Associated With Post-Acute Sequelae Of Sars-Cov-2 Phenotypes: Results From The Impacc Study, Al Ozonoff, Naresh Doni Jayavelu, Shanshan Liu, Esther Melamed, Carly E Milliren, Jingjing Qi, Linda N Geng, Grace A Mccomsey, Charles B Cairns, Lindsey R Baden, Joanna Schaenman, Albert C Shaw, Hady Samaha, Vicki Seyfert-Margolis, Florian Krammer, Lindsey B Rosen, Hanno Steen, Caitlin Syphurs, Ravi Dandekar, Casey P Shannon, Rafick P Sekaly, Lauren I R Ehrlich, David B Corry, Farrah Kheradmand, Mark A Atkinson, Scott C Brakenridge, Nelson I Agudelo Higuita, Jordan P Metcalf, Catherine L Hough, William B Messer, Bali Pulendran, Kari C Nadeau, Mark M Davis, Ana Fernandez Sesma, Viviana Simon, Harm Van Bakel, Seunghee Kim-Schulze, David A Hafler, Ofer Levy, Monica Kraft, Chris Bime, Elias K Haddad, Carolyn S Calfee, David J Erle, Charles R Langelier, Walter Eckalbar, Steven E Bosinger, Bjoern Peters, Steven H Kleinstein, Elaine F Reed, Alison D Augustine, Joann Diray-Arce, Holden T Maecker, Matthew C Altman, Ruth R Montgomery, Patrice M Becker, Nadine Rouphael

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC) is a significant public health concern. We describe Patient Reported Outcomes (PROs) on 590 participants prospectively assessed from hospital admission for COVID-19 through one year after discharge. Modeling identified 4 PRO clusters based on reported deficits (minimal, physical, mental/cognitive, and multidomain), supporting heterogenous clinical presentations in PASC, with sub-phenotypes associated with female sex and distinctive comorbidities. During the acute phase of disease, a higher respiratory SARS-CoV-2 viral burden and lower Receptor Binding Domain and Spike antibody titers were associated with both the physical predominant and the multidomain deficit clusters. A lower frequency of circulating B …

Inpatient Costs Of Treating Patients With Covid-19, Kandice A Kapinos, Richard M Peters, Robert E Murphy, Samuel F Hohmann, Ankita Podichetty, Raymond S Greenberg

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

IMPORTANCE: With more than 6.2 million hospitalizations due to COVID-19 in the US, recognition of the average hospital costs to provide inpatient care during the pandemic is necessary to understanding the national medical resource use and improving public health readiness and related policies.

OBJECTIVE: To examine the mean cost to provide inpatient care to treat COVID-19 and how it varied through the pandemic waves and by important sociodemographic patient characteristics.

DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: This cross-sectional study used inpatient-level data from March 1, 2020, to March 31, 2022, extracted from a repository of clinical, administrative, and financial information covering 97% …

Collateral Effects Of Covid-19 Stay-At-Home Orders On Violence Against Women In The United States, January 2019 To December 2020, Patricia C. Lewis, Yuk F. Cheong, Nadine J. Kaslow, Kathryn M. Yount

Health Science Faculty Publications

Background: The necessary execution of non-pharmaceutical risk-mitigation (NPRM) strategies to reduce the transmission of COVID-19 has created an unprecedented natural experiment to ascertain whether pandemic-induced social-policy interventions may elevate collateral health risks. Here, we assess the efects on violence against women (VAW) of the duration of NPRM measures that were executed through jurisdictional-level orders in the United States. We expect that stay-at-home orders, by reducing mobility and disrupting non-coresident social ties, are associated with higher incident reporting of VAW.

Methods: We used aggregate data from the Murder Accountability Project from January 2019 through December 2020, to estimate count models examining …

Integrated Multi-Omics Analyses Identify Anti-Viral Host Factors And Pathways Controlling Sars-Cov-2 Infection, Jiakai Hou, Yanjun Wei, Jing Zou, Roshni Jaffery, Long Sun, Shaoheng Liang, Ningbo Zheng, Ashley M Guerrero, Nicholas A Egan, Ritu Bohat, Si Chen, Caishang Zheng, Xiaobo Mao, S Stephen Yi, Ken Chen, Daniel J Mcgrail, Nidhi Sahni, Pei-Yong Shi, Yiwen Chen, Xuping Xie, Weiyi Peng

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Host anti-viral factors are essential for controlling SARS-CoV-2 infection but remain largely unknown due to the biases of previous large-scale studies toward pro-viral host factors. To fill in this knowledge gap, we perform a genome-wide CRISPR dropout screen and integrate analyses of the multi-omics data of the CRISPR screen, genome-wide association studies, single-cell RNA-Seq, and host-virus proteins or protein/RNA interactome. This study uncovers many host factors that are currently underappreciated, including the components of V-ATPases, ESCRT, and N-glycosylation pathways that modulate viral entry and/or replication. The cohesin complex is also identified as an anti-viral pathway, suggesting an important role of …

Labour Force Participation And Type Of Work Older Persons In Vietnam Before And During Covid-19, Trieu Thi Phuong, Pataporn Sukontamarn

Journal of Demography

Vietnam is ageing rapidly and is predicted to enter an aged society within the next fifteen years, posing a major challenge for a lower middle-income nation with an incomplete social security system. Supporting older persons to continue working can be a reasonable strategy to ensure their life quality and reduce the burden on the national social security system. Our study aims to investigate the determinants of older persons’ participation in the labour force and their type of work. Based on the 2018 and 2020 Vietnam Housing and Living Standard surveys, health problems, pension status, and level of education significantly explain …

The Impact Of Loneliness Post-Pandemic And Immersed In The Upcoming Political Election, Regina M. Luttrell Ph.D., Gwen Pratt, Abigail Kludt, Amy Barone, Kwadwo Osei-Poku, Lihan Wang

Real Chemistry Emerging Insights Lab

The Real Chemistry Emerging Insights Lab emerged with a partnership between Real Chemistry and the Public Relations department at the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communication and serves as a multidisciplinary research center focusing on analytics, artificial intelligence, digital and emerging media for a number of organizations regarding communications.

Healthcare professionals and organizations are interested in identifying how mental health impacts different U.S. generational groups after the COVID-19 pandemic and the intersectionality of U.S. Politics. Our team focused on two generational cohorts – Generation X (1965-1980) and Generation Z (1997-2012) – as an entry point into navigating the impact of …

Time Series Forecasting Of New Cases For Covid-19 Pandemic In Jordan Using Enhanced Hybrid Emd-Arima, Ahmad M. Awajan, Bilal Al-Hasanat, Elarbi Elkaroui, Ayed Al E’Damat, Remal S. Al-Gounmeein, Abdullah S. Al- Jawarneh

Journal of Statistics Applications & Probability

In this study, the enhanced hybrid empirical mode decomposition with autoregressive integrated moving average (EMD- ARIMA) method is proposed and applied to forecast daily new COVID-19 reported cases in Jordan. The EMD method is applied to decompose the COVID-19 data into a number of IMFs components as a simple time series. Then, the appropriate ARIMA(p,d,q) model is applied to evaluate the forecasting value for the low-frequency components. Then, the forecasting results are collected together. Data for this study are collected from the Jordanian Ministry of Health. Seven forecasting accuracy measures are employed to compare the forecasting results of the proposed …

Introducing Mental Health Resources To Nurse Practitioner Residents, Tiffanie Bailey

Doctor of Nursing Practice Projects

This DNP Project identified the increased need for mental health resources after the COVID-19 pandemic. Studies showed the rate of anxiety, depression, and substance use has also been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. As the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic began to devastate the country mentally and physically, it became quickly apparent that additional resources to provide support for those suffering from mental illness were essential. This project aimed to introduce a Mental Health First Aid course within the Residency Program at the Center for Family Guidance. Participants were asked to complete a pre-test indicating their …

A Qualitative Case Study Of Disabled Students’ Experiences With Online Course Accessibility During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Jason Altmann

Dissertations of Practice

ABSTRACT

A QUALITATIVE CASE STUDY OF DISABLED STUDENTS’

EXPERIENCES WITH ONLINE COURSE ACCESSIBILITY

DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC

Jason Altmann, Ed.D.

Department of Counseling and Higher Education

Northern Illinois University, 2024

Xiaodan Hu, Director

This dissertation presents a qualitative case study exploring the experiences of disabled students with online course accessibility during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study investigates how the abrupt shift to online learning impacted the accessibility of educational materials and support services for disabled students in a large, suburban community college.

Critical Disability Theory (CDT) framework was utilized to guide interview questions and explore the connection between the initial …

Did The Change In Snap Ebt Benefits In Response To Covid-19 Affect Poverty, Snap Participation, And Food Insecurity Rates?, Paige Thing

2024 Awards for Excellence in Student Research and Creative Activity - Documents

The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP, is one of the most important welfare programs the United States government offers. In fiscal year 2015, one in every seven Americans received SNAP assistance. Previously called food stamps as they were first introduced with the passing of the Food and Agriculture Act in 1977, this program has been helping individuals struggling with food insecurity for decades (Ziliak 2016). Benefits are no longer dispersed with physical stamps, restricting what households can and cannot buy. Now benefits are distributed via a debit card-type system. This is where the EBT gets added to the program …

Thymidine Phosphorylase Is A Promising Target In Sars-Cov-2 Spike Protein-Enhanced Thrombosis, Renat Roytenberg

Theses, Dissertations and Capstones

Thrombosis, as an underlying mechanism in cardiovascular diseases, is the leading global cause of death in the 21st century. Infection is a risk factor for thrombosis, and the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has led to a rise in the incidence of thrombosis, thereby increasing mortality. In comparison to previous severe coronavirus outbreaks, rates of thrombosis in COVID-19 have been unprecedented. COVID-19 is caused by the novel coronavirus, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The SARS-CoV-2 spike protein (SP), the key used to enter host cells, is implicated in thrombosis pathology, though mechanisms are not fully understood. The SARS-CoV-2 …

Coping With The Covid-19 Pandemic: Examining Meaning-Making In A Socioecological Framework, Emilia Eva Mikrut

Theses and Dissertations

During 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic emerged as a threatening, unpredictable, and uncontrollable stressor. Meaning-making, or one’s ability to make sense of a stressful life event, integrate the event into one’s narrative of the world and meaning in life, and accordingly revise life goals, is a salient intrapsychic process contributing to psychological adjustment in the face of very stressful or traumatic experiences such as chronic health issues, interpersonal grief, and natural and man-made disasters. Early findings provide evidence for the critical role of meaning-making in coping with stressors associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Though meaning-making is a universal process, one’s capacity …

Grade Iv Glioma Potentially Disguised As Covid-19 Encephalitis, Austin Patrick Eisenberg, Nicolina Scibelli, Hannah Fischer, Victor Collier

South Atlantic Division GME Research Day 2024

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Importance Of Administrative Mental Health Support For Frontline Nurses Post Covid-19, Sarah Mah

Nursing | Senior Theses

During the peak of the COVID-19 pandemic, intensive care units and critical care units were overwhelmed with the number of patients that were on the floors. It was during this time that nurses were experiencing the most mental health decline.

Several factors can be associated with the rapid decline of nurses’ mental health. However, these issues could ultimately stem from the lack of action taken by healthcare administration. This includes increased workload and the lack of PPE, resources institutional support. Because these units played such a vital role during the pandemic, it is imperative that healthcare administrators do what they …

The Impact Of Censorship On Covid-19 Policy Formation In The United States, Victor Wallis

Faculty Works

No abstract provided.

Pandemic Pathways: An Integrated Approach To Studying The Pandemic’S Employment Impacts On Paid And Unpaid Care Of Children 0 To 11 Years Old, Johanna S. Quinn

Sociology Faculty Publications

The pandemic adversely affected the employment of child caregivers, exacerbating already existing inequalities. The authors offer an integrated framework that considers the interdependencies between unpaid and paid child caregiving and the construction of the childcare sector as a devalued and fractionalized group. The authors outline the prepandemic positioning of mothers, childcare teachers, preschool teachers, and primary school teachers. Then, using cross-sectional and panel data from the Current Population Survey, the authors describe how the pandemic affected these four groups of child caregivers’ employment between January 2018 and December 2022. Black, Brown, and non-college-educated mothers were hit particularly hard during the …

Connecting In Crisis: Exploring Online Informal Communications In Florida’S Unemployment Struggle, Anna V. Eskamani

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

The COVID-19 pandemic led to widespread unemployment, significantly impacting Floridians who faced delays and systemic issues with the state's unemployment system. This study examines crisis communication within a Reddit community, focusing on how individuals used informal communications to navigate the unemployment benefits crisis. Guided by Rhetorical Arena Theory (RAT) and Uses and Gratification Theory (U&G), the research addresses: (1) How did individuals in the active audience discuss challenges faced when trying to access Florida’s unemployment system? (2) What lessons can be drawn from the analysis of informal communications on social media for improving crisis communication strategies during future crises? A …

From Crisis To Classroom: Evaluating Academic Success In Vulnerable Populations During The Covid-19 Emergency Education Era, Jake Novak

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This study investigated school closures' impact on students from vulnerable populations in elementary classrooms. The research places an emphasis on the importance of an equitable and effective educational system in every community. It highlights the role of formal education in providing opportunities for social advancement and promoting the development of individuals and nations. The impact of the COVID-19 Emergency on access to quality education and the challenges and inequities faced by vulnerable populations are emphasized. This research also discusses the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) established by the United Nations in 2015 to ensure inclusive and equitable education for all children …

Cultivating Green Public Spaces And Backyard Gardens Amid Covid-19: An Anthropological Study Of Metro-Orlando Gardeners, Chelsea N. Daws

Graduate Thesis and Dissertation 2023-2024

This dissertation critically analyzes home and community gardens within Metro-Orlando by considering the ways that the COVID-19 pandemic impacts residents' garden participation and access to green public spaces. The study utilizes an ethnographic approach to produce informed understandings of participants' experiences within local gardens, alternative food networks, and community supported agriculture analyzed using Marxian theoretical frameworks. Findings are primarily grounded in qualitative information derived from interviews, participant observation, and photovoice. Data were collected both prior to the global COVID-19 outbreak and over subsequent months of lockdown and public health mitigation measures. Primarily focusing on local community garden organizers, community garden …

Black Males’ Experiences Of Resilience: A Narrative Study On College Students Experiences During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Keshia R. Graham

Theses and Dissertations

Black men’s resilience has historically been discussed, interwoven, and disguised by deficit-based models rather than strength-based ones. The current study examined Black men's resilience using a strength-based model for Black male students in higher education institutions. Specifically, the experiences and resilience of Black men before and during the COVID-19 pandemic were explored. This study targeted Black male students from an urban institution, with the aim to find out what key elements supported their resilient behavior throughout the most challenging times in their college career. The African American Male Theory and Resiliency Theory used as the theoretical framework. A narrative methodology …

Balancing Acts: Navigating The Impact Of Working From Home On Women, Families And Beyond, Gayle Marie Hardison

Department of Conflict Resolution Studies Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic had a significant impact on the world and continues to impact us four years later. One of the most significant impacts the pandemic had is on the way we work. To stop the spread of the virus and to safeguard the public, countries around the world issued stay-athome orders which required all but essential workers to stay at home beginning in March of 2020 in the United States and throughout the world. This transformed the way and where we worked and a large portion of the workforce which was able, began working from home or teleworking. What …

Evaluating Used Farm Machinery And Assessing The Sustainability Of Tile Drainage Installation, Robert C. Ellis

Theses and Dissertations--Agricultural Economics

This dissertation comprises three essays regarding the impacts of tile drainage implementation in row crop production and the evaluation of the farm machinery markets of combine harvesters and tractors. The second chapter focuses on tile drainage in traditional row crop agricultural systems. Although tile drain systems have been used for many years, recently, their popularity has increased. This increase has led to questions about these systems' costs and environmental impacts. These concerns have left many operations and individuals questioning if the system’s benefits outweigh the costs. This dissertation presents a life cycle cost (LCC) and carbon footprint (CF) Analysis for …

Stopping The Spread: Critical Disability Theory Treatment Of The Attack On Disparate Impact Discrimination Claims, Sara Sam-Njogu

Western New England Law Review

During a surge in the COVID pandemic, the Perkiomen Valley School District moved from mandatory masking to optional masking. This prevented some medically vulnerable children with conditions like asthma from safely attending school due to their increased risk of serious infection, prompting the children’s parents to bring suit on their behalf. The court found that while the optional policy was neutral on its face, it should nevertheless be enjoined because it prevented the students from having meaningful access to their education. This disproportionate impact on students with disabilities was a violation of the Americans with Disabilities Act.

To reach this …

Towards A Pedagogy Of Human Connection : Understanding Teachers’ Experiences Of Connection During A Pandemic, Michael Diamond

Theses, Dissertations and Culminating Projects

During the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic, schools shuttered quickly and re-opened slowly. These decisions impacted the well-being of teachers and students. Upon re-opening, schools in New Jersey adopted a range of instructional approaches—including virtual and hybrid models—that prioritized safety and diminished human connections. This came at a time when rates of isolation and loneliness were increasing and the US was already experiencing a crisis of connection. To understand teachers’ experiences with human connection during the winter and second spring of the COVID-19 pandemic, this dissertation study recruited nine high school teachers from one school in New Jersey who …

Goodwill Elasticity And The Opportunity For Favorable Financial Reporting, Drew Stevenson

Dissertations and Theses

ASC 350-20 grants public business entities (PBEs) the discretion to determine timely recognition of goodwill impairment charges, which likely introduces managerial ambiguity in the goodwill impairment process. Consequently, this paper explores whether the ambiguity in goodwill accounting standards allows managers to engage in favorable financial reporting during economic disruption, such as the global financial crisis of 2008 and 2009 or the COVID-19 pandemic beginning in 2020. The study introduces an indicator variable to identify PBEs with highly elastic goodwill changes, providing insight into a PBE's internal processes and how its management practices for goodwill impairment differ from standard industry practices. …

Acute Mesenteric Ischemia In Patients With Covid-19, Tristan Fun, Natalie Hurlock, Danielle Ford

North Texas GME Research Forum 2024

Introduction: Patient with COVID-19 are more likely to have thrombotic events, including deep vein thrombosis (DVT), pulmonary embolism (PE), and disseminated intravascular coagulation (DIC). There have been many case reports of patient with acute mesenteric ischemia (AMI) in the setting of COVID-19. Incidences of AMI occur in about 0.1% of acute hospital admissions. Short term mortality from AMI range from 26-86%. Therefore, early diagnosis and treatment are essential, yet diagnosis is difficult and AMI can often go unrecognized as a cause of death. This study attempted to establish the risk of patients with COVID-19 having acute mesenteric ischemia and compare …

Governance Policy Evaluation In The United States During The Pandemic: Nonpharmaceutical Interventions Or Else?, Danlin Yu, Shenyang Guo, Yuanyuan Yang, Linyun Fu, Timothy Mcbride, Ruopeng An

Department of Earth and Environmental Studies Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

Scientific evidence suggests that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) effectively curb the spread of COVID-19 before a pharmaceutical solution. Implementing these interventions also significantly affects regular socioeconomic activities and practices of social, racial, and political justice. Local governments often face conflicting goals during policymaking. Striking a balance among competing goals during a global pandemic is a fine science of governance. How well state governments consume the scientific evidence and maintain such a balance remains less understood. This study employs a set of Bayesian hierarchical models to evaluate how state governments in the United States use scientific evidence to balance the fighting against …