Digital Commons Network^™

Covid-19 Vaccination And Alcohol Consumption: Justification Of Risks, Pavel A. Solopov

Bioelectrics Publications

Since the beginning of the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) pandemic, pharmaceutical companies and research institutions have been actively working to develop vaccines, and the mass roll-out of vaccinations against COVID-19 began in January 2021. At the same time, during lockdowns, the consumption of alcoholic beverages increased. During the peak of vaccination, consumption remained at high levels around the world, despite the gradual relaxation of quarantine restrictions. Two of the popular queries on search engines were whether it is safe to drink alcohol after vaccination and whether this will affect the effectiveness of vaccines. Over the past two …

Covidanno, Covid-19 Annotation In Human, Yuzhou Feng, Mengyuan Yang, Zhiwei Fan, Weiling Zhao, Pora Kim, Xiaobo Zhou

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the etiologic agent of coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19), has caused a global health crisis. Despite ongoing efforts to treat patients, there is no universal prevention or cure available. One of the feasible approaches will be identifying the key genes from SARS-CoV-2-infected cells. SARS-CoV-2-infected in vitro model, allows easy control of the experimental conditions, obtaining reproducible results, and monitoring of infection progression. Currently, accumulating RNA-seq data from SARS-CoV-2 in vitro models urgently needs systematic translation and interpretation. To fill this gap, we built COVIDanno, COVID-19 annotation in humans, available at http://biomedbdc.wchscu.cn/COVIDanno/. The aim …

Essays In Applied Microeconomics, Joshua C. Martin

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

The first chapter examines the role that same-sex marriage legalization had on the number of adoptions of children from foster care in the United States. We do so by employing a synthetic difference-in-differences estimator which leverages both the differential timing of these laws across states and the subsequent wave of state-level legal protections which give foster-care agencies the right to deny service to same-sex couples based on religiously-held beliefs. Using highly detailed, county-level data of nearly 20 million children in the foster care system from 1995-2020, our findings reveal that same-sex marriage legalization led to a 3.8%-5.9% increase in the …

Physical Activity And Exercise With Blood Flow Restriction As Medicine During The Covid-19 Pandemic And Beyond, Isaac J. Wedig

Dissertations, Master's Theses and Master's Reports

During the COVID-19 pandemic, physical activity levels have decreased and sitting time has increased. This is a major concern as physical inactivity increases the risk for severe COVID-19 outcomes. Evidence also indicates that COVID-19 survivors can experience reduced physical function (i.e., ability to complete daily living activities) long after acute illness. Currently, there are no evidence-based guidelines for recovering physical function following COVID-19 infection. Exercise with blood flow restriction (BFR) presents a promising rehabilitation strategy as the benefits of traditional exercise can be achieved using lower intensities. However, several barriers such as cost, access to equipment, and lack of standardized …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On The I Promise School, Katherine Haver

Williams Honors College, Honors Research Projects

This project will research the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the I Promise School in Akron and the social emotional learning of the students who attend there. Data will be collected through a survey sent to I Promise School faculty and staff members. Questions asked will be about how online learning affected the teachers' connections with their students, how social emotional learning strategies where incorporated online, and what challenges are now being faced as students return to in person learning? The goal of this project is to learn about the effects of COVID-19 in the I Promise School, so …

Evaluative Thinking Amid Disaster, Phung Khanh Pham

CGU Theses & Dissertations

Evaluation and emergency medicine have appreciable parallels and are likely to intertwine as they each evolve, especially in response to disasters or other pervasive problems that can worsen into the future. Evaluative thinking—which largely involves critical thinking, valuing, and other dynamic processes—may be ubiquitously useful to practitioners, scholars, and others from both these fields of practice. In this dissertation, I referenced the dual systems theory of the human mind to conceptualize evaluative thinking as paradoxically fast (automatic) and slow (deliberate), and I characterized the COVID-19 pandemic as a disaster laden with societal games. Derived from game theory, societal games range …

When We're Coming From What Would An Hiv Doula Do? On Pandemic Time(S), Alexandra Juhasz, Theodore Kerr, Jennifer Brier, Olivia Polk, Alex Fiahlo, Pato Hebert, Salonee Bhaman

Publications and Research

“When We’re Coming From” is a conversation across time and place among a group of writers and artists who are members of the What Would an HIV Doula Do? Collective. Seven of us have come together to have an asynchronous conversation about how our decades-long work to respond to the HIV/AIDS pandemic shapes our experience of the COVID-19 pandemic. Here we share six individual assessments of pandemic time to suggest ways that pandemics(s) shape our sense of time(s). What follows are our meditations on how and when we see ourselves, and the transitions of HIV/AIDS and COVID-19: “AIDS out of …

Collecting And Curating Covid-19 Heritage: Challenges Of Conservation And Management, Kelly Britt

Publications and Research

The COVID-19 pandemic raises questions about curation, collecting, and the ethics of documenting a traumatic event as it occurs in real time. Such concerns became clear as the co-authors embarked on a multi-sited study of the pandemic’s impact on four communities in

two different countries. Defining an ‘artefact’ or what is archaeologi- cal, for instance, became a complicated exercise; do chalk artworks

on the sidewalk, painted rocks lining a neighbourhood trail, posters stapled on community billboards, and stuffed animals in someone’s window count as archaeological artefacts? Determining the temporal boundaries of the pandemic is also difficult; while it is fairly …

Perspectives On Online Learning And Technostress Experienced By Science And Non-Science First-Year University Students During Covid-19, Teerada Chongkolrattanaporn, Woralan Kongpolphrom

PASAA

This study examined perspectives on online learning, focusing on synchronous and asynchronous modes and technostress experienced by first-year students during the COVID-19 pandemic. Based on a survey of 803 first-year university respondents, the results indicated that both science and nonscience students held different perspectives on synchronous and asynchronous modes of learning. The students from both groups also experienced varying levels of technostress, with techno-overload being the most pronounced. There was a significant difference in attitudes towards online learning modes and in technostress between science and non-science students. Non-science students were more positive toward asynchronous modes and reported higher levels of …

Does The Cdc Covid-19 Exposure Assessment Criteria For Healthcare Personnel Work In A Healthcare Setting In Pakistan?, Imran Hassan, Unab Khan, Shehreen Ali, Asif Hakim, Asad Ali

Department of Family Medicine

Objective: To evaluate the real-world performance of the CDC's "Interim US guidance for risk assessment and work restriction for healthcare personnel with exposure to COVID-19" at a private healthcare system in Pakistan.
Study design: Retrospective observational study.
Place and duration of study: The Aga khan University Hospital, Karachi, and its associated healthcare facilities in all four provinces of Pakistan, from February to September 2020.
Methodology: Healthcare personnel (HCPs) assessed and tested for exposures to COVID-19 were included in the study. An exposure category was assigned to each HCP presenting with exposure to COVID-19 based on the CDC criteria. Percentage positivity …

Deep Learning, 3d Ultrastructural Analysis Reveals Quantitative Differences In Platelet And Organelle Packing In Covid-19/Sarscov2 Patient-Derived Platelets, Sagar S. Matharu, Cassidy S. Nordmann, Kurtis R. Ottman, Rahul Akkem, Douglas Palumbo, Denzel R. D. Cruz, Kenneth Campbell, Gail Sievert, Jamie L. Sturgill, James Zachary Porterfield, Smita Joshi, Hammodah Rawhi Hammodah Alfar, Chi Peng, Irina D. Pokrovskaya, Jeffrey A. Kamykowski, Jeremy P. Wood, Beth A. Garvy, Maria A. Aronova, Sidney W. Whiteheart, Richard D. Leapman, Brian Storrie

Saha Cardiovascular Research Center Faculty Publications

Platelets contribute to COVID-19 clinical manifestations, of which microclotting in the pulmonary vasculature has been a prominent symptom. To investigate the potential diagnostic contributions of overall platelet morphology and their α-granules and mitochondria to the understanding of platelet hyperactivation and micro-clotting, we undertook a 3D ultrastructural approach. Because differences might be small, we used the high-contrast, high-resolution technique of focused ion beam scanning EM (FIB-SEM) and employed deep learning computational methods to evaluate nearly 600 individual platelets and 30 000 included organelles within three healthy controls and three severely ill COVID-19 patients. Statistical analysis reveals that the α-granule/ mitochondrion-to-plateletvolume ratio …

Leadership, Teaching And Learning In Times Of Crisis In Southern Tanzania, Nipael Mrutu, Peter Kajoro, Hamis Pintson Nkota

Institute for Educational Development, East Africa

The outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic has had a significant impact on education provision worldwide. School leaders, teachers and parents found themselves in uncharted circumstances, which hugely impacted their roles in promoting children’s learning. The purpose of this study was to investigate the roles played by leaders, teachers, and parents during the COVID-19 crisis. This paper discusses teaching and learning in this time of crisis. The study sampled 10 head teachers, 60 schoolteachers and 57 parents representing 10 primary schools in five districts in the Lindi region of Tanzania. A postmodernism lens was applied to respond to questions about the …

Nasal Host Response-Based Screening For Undiagnosed Respiratory Viruses: A Pathogen Surveillance And Detection Study, Nagarjuna R. Cheemarla, Amelia Hanron, Joseph R. Fauver, Jason Bishai, Timothy A. Watkins, Anderson F. Brito, Dejian Zhao, Tara Alpert, Chantal B. F. Vogels, Albert I. Ko, Wade L. Schulz, Marie L. Landry, Nathan D. Grubaugh, David Van Dijk, Ellen F. Foxman

Journal Articles: Epidemiology

BACKGROUND: Symptomatic patients who test negative for common viruses are an important possible source of unrecognised or emerging pathogens, but metagenomic sequencing of all samples is inefficient because of the low likelihood of finding a pathogen in any given sample. We aimed to determine whether nasopharyngeal CXCL10 screening could be used as a strategy to enrich for samples containing undiagnosed viruses.

METHODS: In this pathogen surveillance and detection study, we measured CXCL10 concentrations from nasopharyngeal swabs from patients in the Yale New Haven health-care system, which had been tested at the Yale New Haven Hospital Clinical Virology Laboratory (New Haven, …

A Preliminary Study Of The Effectiveness Of Information Technology In Promoting Healthcare Learning Among Aging Learners In Covid-19 Pandemic: Use The Ape-Like On-The-Spot Super Slow Jogging As An Example, Shwu-Ching Young

Journal of Educational Technology Development and Exchange (JETDE)

The global outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020 has turned a new exercise Ape-like On-the-spot Super Slow Jogging that was originally taking place in the physical world into an online mode. In order to understand the characteristics, and steps and effectiveness of the Jogging, this study adopts a mixed-method methodology to analyze the effectiveness of MOOCs like course on YouTube and the two-way Line based community to assist online practice learning. The research subjects are 33 participants who completed the 100-day foundation building program within six months. The results of the quantitative and qualitative cross-comparison analysis show that this …

Us Consumers' Confidence And Responses To Covid-19 Shock, Suzanna Elmassah, Shereen Bacheer, Eslam Hassanein

All Works

Purpose: This research's main objective is to investigate the relationship between consumption expenditure and consumer confidence in the USA and to study their effects on US economic revivalism during and after the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) shock. Design/methodology/approach: The authors use Michigan's monthly Consumer Sentiment Index and its five components from January 1978 to April 2020. The study is unique in quantifying the potential variations in US consumer confidence due to COVID-19 under different scenarios, by providing a projection until December 2021. It also estimates the time needed for recovery and offers guidance to policymakers on ways to contain the …

Implications Of Cyberbiosecurity In Advanced Agriculture, Simone Stephen, Keitavius Alexander, Lucas Potter, Xavier-Lewis Palmer

Electrical & Computer Engineering Faculty Publications

The world is currently undergoing a rapid digital transformation sometimes referred to as the fourth industrial revolution. During this transformation, it is increasingly clear that many scientific fields are not prepared for this change. One specific area is agriculture. As the sector which creates global food supply, this critical infrastructure requires detailed assessment and research via newly developed technologies (Millett et al, 2019; Peccoud et al, 2018) . Despite its fundamental significance to modern civilization, many aspects of industrial agriculture have not yet adapted to the digital world. This is evident in the many vulnerabilities currently present within agricultural systems, …

The Shortfalls Of Vulnerability Indexes For Public Health Decision-Making In The Face Of Emergent Crises: The Case Of Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake In Virginia, Lydia Cleveland Sa, Erika Frydenlund

VMASC Publications

Equitable and effective vaccine uptake is a key issue in addressing COVID-19. To achieve this, we must comprehensively characterize the context-specific socio-behavioral and structural determinants of vaccine uptake. However, to quickly focus public health interventions, state agencies and planners often rely on already existing indexes of "vulnerability." Many such "vulnerability indexes" exist and become benchmarks for targeting interventions in wide ranging scenarios, but they vary considerably in the factors and themes that they cover. Some are even uncritical of the use of the word "vulnerable," which should take on different meanings in different contexts. The objective of this study is …

A Mixed Methods Study Of How Elementary Teachers Cope Mentally, Physically, And Spiritually While Teaching In A Pandemic, Chavon Tyrra Bryant

Doctor of Education Dissertations

The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine coping strategies for teachers in elementary schools who taught during the COVID-19 pandemic. Teachers experienced mental, physical, and spiritual challenges throughout the pandemic, and this study shared how teachers coped. Through this study, 48 teachers serving in three different elementary schools in North Carolina completed ten 4-point Likert scale response items. The survey tool's validity was established using the Lawshe content validation index. Interviews were conducted, in addition to a focus group session. Resilience theory, a framework for improving a teacher's ability to adapt successfully when under stress or adversity, …

Did The Covid-19 Pandemic Cause A Learning Loss In Reading And Mathematics? Empirical Evidence Using 2022 Grade 8 Students In Kentucky., Tiyani Rodrigo

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

In 2020, most United States (U.S.) schools closed abruptly. Due to the pandemic, students and teachers were affected in multiple ways. Nearly three years post-pandemic, it is evident students lost in academic achievement. Lower academic performance may impact the future economy and labor force due to lower productivity. Therefore, understanding the causal impact COVID-19 had on academic achievement is vital to develop policy that will help mitigate the long-term impact. In this capstone, I will estimate the size and direction of the impact COVID-19 had on Mathematics and Reading skills for grade 8 students in Kentucky. Using a Difference-in-Differences (DiD) …

Postpartum Depression And The Availability Of Support Resources In The Era Of Covid-19, Colleen Steward, Amy Claridge, Tishra Beeson, Sarah L. Feeney

All Master's Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic dramatically influenced women’s experience of pregnancy, labor, and the postpartum phase. New research shows rates of postpartum depression were higher than typical during the pandemic. This study expands on existing research by examining postpartum depression at 12-30 months postpartum and exploring the role of perceptions of access to social support in predicting depressive symptoms.

This survey assessed postpartum women’s perceptions of the availability of supports during the COVID-19 pandemic and whether access to support was associated with experiences of postpartum depression 12-30 months after birth. In total, 242 participants responded to an online survey including the Edinburgh …

Impact Of The Washington State Covid-19 Lockdown On 5-10-Year-Ol School-Aged Children Residing In Kitties County, Peyton Rondeau

All Master's Theses

Background: The Washington State COVID-19 lockdown and subsequent school closures brought increased dependency on parents to provide nutritious meals and opportunities for physical activity for their children.

Purpose: The aim of this study was to describe the impacts of the Washington State COVID-19 lockdown on the dietary, physical activity, and screen time habits of children ages 5-10-years-old residing in Kittitas County.

Methods: A researcher-developed Qualtrics survey was created and validated via the Index of Item Objective Congruence. The survey was administered to parents via Facebook, using local Kittitas County Facebook groups.

Results: Most parents identified that the Washington lockdown negatively …

An Empirical Analysis Of The Impact Of Covid-19 On Trade: Evidence From A Small Island African Economy, Z Khan Jaffur, V Tandrayen-Ragoobur, B Seetanah

Journal of African Trade

This study investigates the potential impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and related containment measures on the trade system of Mauritius for the period January 2010 to June 2021. As the pandemic spread across the globe due to high interconnectedness across countries, authorities has also established stringent health containment measures in the form of restrictions on people and businesses to slow the propagation of the virus. Being a small island economy highly dependent on international trade, Mauritius also faced the brunt of the pandemic which disrupted its economic activities and trade flows with its main trading partners. COVID-19 incidence and lockdown …

Inequitable By Design: The Patent Culture, Law, And Politics Behind Covid-19 Vaccine Global Access, Ximena Benavides

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

COVID-19 vaccine access has been highly inequitable worldwide, with coverage depending largely on a country’s wealth. By the end of 2021, 64.1% of people living in high-income countries had received at least one dose of the vaccine, compared to only 5.4% of those in low-income countries. Similarly, only high- and upper-middle-income countries had received the most effective vaccines.

The uneven distribution of these lifesaving vaccines is made complex due to the convergence of several factors, but it suggests that the extraordinary expanding and ossifying market and political power of a few vaccine manufacturers founded on intellectual property and complementary policies …

Who Bears The Burden? A Collectivist Approach To Resolving Pandemic Relief Overpayments, Allison R. Mastrangelo

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

Unemployment rates soared when COVID-19 hit the U.S. While pandemic relief programs allowed millions to meet their basic needs, a new problem emerged: overpayments. Overpayments occur when state agencies give claimants benefits they were not entitled to. While most claimants were not at fault for these mistakes, millions are now expected to repay benefits they spent months ago. Thus far, the U.S. has prioritized fraud detection over this overpayment crisis. This misguided effort is representative of the destructive, individualistic American welfare culture at large. This note advocates for a solution rooted in collectivist European values: amending the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, …

Adult Learners With Learning Disabilities’ Motivation To Succeed In Higher Education Online Learning During Covid19, Sara Michelle Rodriguez

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

Many students had to transition to online learning due to the COVID-19 pandemic while other students were already enrolled in online education. Online study may hold additional struggles for students with learning disabilities. The problem addressed in this qualitative, phenomenological study was the motivating factors of online higher education students who have a learning disability during the COVID-19 pandemic. The theoretical foundation was Maslow’s hierarchy of needs. Data were gathered through 10 semistructured interviews and then analyzed through the thematic analysis yielding five themes: (a) lack of professional support, (b) resources, (c) support system, (d) consistent motivation, and (e) low …

Consensus On Potential Changes In Public Health Leadership Competencies As A Result Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Among Washington State Local Health Jurisdictions, Haley M. Schimmel

All Master's Theses

Effective leadership practices among the public health field are critical in the process of influencing positive health outcomes across populations. While many competencies or skill sets that are needed of leaders to promote ideal public health functions have been identified and discussed in previous literature, there has become an arising need for evaluation of potential changes due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

To do this, the Delphi research method was utilized through the implementation of a four-round questionnaire process to gain consensus among participating leaders in ten different Washington State Local Health Jurisdictions. The two main research questions of this study …

Optimizing Sample Collection And Data Interpretation For Effective Wastewater-Based Epidemiology In Combined Sewer Systems, Christopher Allen Anderson

Graduate Theses, Dissertations, and Problem Reports (ETD)

COVID-19 has spurred growth in the science surrounding wastewater-based epidemiology (WBE) pertaining to the detection of severe acute respiratory virus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) in waste streams as an early warning signal for public health. However, the highly variable wastewater environment has made it difficult to standardize an approach for sampling and analysis, especially in locations using combined sewer infrastructure. This study addresses knowledge gaps of WBE via three specific aims: (1) to compare diurnal fluctuations of SARS-CoV-2 and the human fecal indicator, pepper mild mottle virus (PMMoV) in wastewater treatment plant (WWTP) influent samples collected during dry versus wet weather conditions; …

Conspiracy Theories Are Not Religions: Scrutinizing Religious Exemptions To The Covid-19 Vaccine, Shirley B. Luk

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

California Constitutional Law: The Emergency Police Power, Daniel H. Bromberg

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.

A Pandemic Of Division: Finding Justice At Work In Challenging Times, Catherine L. Fisk

University of San Francisco Law Review

No abstract provided.