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'More Of The Same, But Worse Than Before': A Qualitative Study Of The Challenges Encountered By People Who Use Drugs In Nova Scotia, Canada During Covid-19, Emilie Comeau, Matthew Bonn, Sheila Wildeman, Matthew Herder

Articles, Book Chapters, & Popular Press

Background

To learn about the experiences of people who use drugs, specifically opioids, in the Halifax Regional Municipality (HRM), in Nova Scotia, Canada during the COVID-19 pandemic through qualitative interviews with people who use drugs and healthcare providers (HCP). This study took place within the HRM, a municipality of 448,500 people. During the pandemic many critical services were interrupted while overdose events increased. We wanted to understand the experiences of people who use drugs as well as their HCPs during the first year of the pandemic.

Methodology

We conducted a qualitative study using semi-structured interviews with 13 people who use …

Migrants, Covid-19, And Italy: A Multimodal Critical Discourse Analysis Of The Construction Of And Resistance To Nationalist Discourses, Alessia Barbici Wagner, Theresa Catalano, Bryan Meadows

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Migration has historically been a controversial issue around the world and one that has often been harnessed by people in power (or people hoping to gain power) for their own political agendas. In times of a global pandemic, the scapegoating of migrants has only increased, often rooted in nationalist ideologies which lead to policies and practices that harm migrants and the larger society. The present paper employs multimodal critical discourse analysis to explore how nationalist ideologies supported by right-wing populism are constructed visually and verbally during COVID-19 on Italian social media in regard to migration. We analyze Giorgia Meloni’s (leader …

Sustainable Transportation: Behavioral Analysis Of Working-From-Home And Electric Vehicles Adoption, Zeinab Bayati

UNF Graduate Theses and Dissertations

Sustainable transportation plays a crucial role in mitigating environmental impacts, and this study examines two key aspects, namely working from home (WFH) and the adoption of electric vehicles (EVs), in the context of promoting sustainable practices.

The first part of this thesis focuses on how people's perceptions towards working from home have changed as a result of their experiences during COVID-19. To analyze these changes, a random parameter logit (RPL) model is developed based on a nationwide public dataset collected during the pandemic in the United States. Dependent variable of the model is constructed through comparing data from the first …

Editorial: Resilience In The Face Of Environmental Disasters In The Age Of Covid-19, Sumana Chattopadhyay

College of Communication Faculty Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Training A Public Accommodations Lens On Vaccine Passports, Paul Diller

Lewis & Clark Law Review

The Covid pandemic and the rise of smartphone technology enabled the use of “vaccine passports”—that is, a requirement to show proof of vaccination against Covid—on a scale unmatched before in human history. In the United States, many public accommodations such as restaurants, coffee shops, stadiums, and movie theaters required patrons to show proof of vaccination in order to enter or consume food and drink on the premises. In approximately two dozen local jurisdictions as well as the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico, government mandated that public accommodations do this, with varied carveouts for religious objections and medical or age-based …

Enrollment Management Strategies At Rural Community Colleges Resulting From The Pandemic, Robin C. Daniel, Mitchell R. Williams, Kim E. Bullington

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

Higher education institutions around the world were impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic that began in early 2020. Because U.S. community colleges focus on two-year degrees and workforce development, they were affected differently than their four-year counterparts. This study examined how academic administrators at different rural community colleges in Virginia, United States, perceived enrollment management practices that were implemented or changed due to the pandemic. This sequential explanatory study's first phase was quantitative and measured mid- to senior-level administrators' views of how the pandemic affected their colleges' enrollment management practices. The second qualitative phase resulted in five themes surrounding COVID-related enrollment …

Pandemic Communication: International Communication, Anthony Spencer

Other Scholarly Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic has transformed our world as we previously knew it. One of those major changes is how we communicate with one another across national borders. The pandemic forced us to find ways to improve the way we utilize social media outlets to communicate with others around the world. Research into global communication has long been too focused on the West, and particularly the United States. This shift in our communication usage also provides a moment of pause to reflect on ways to make the field of international communication more inclusive and focus on key issues which influence transnational …

A Descriptive Quantitative Exploration Of College Students Of Promise During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Tameka Womack, Kim E. Bullington, Pietro A. Sasso

Educational Leadership & Workforce Development Faculty Publications

The term Students of Promise is used for students considered to have a heightened risk status, which not only has a negative effect on students but also on the higher education institutions they attend. This quantitative study explored how the COVID-19 virus has impacted student populations at various US higher education institutions and to uncover what specific issues (financial, emotional, social) impacted students during this unprecedented time in light of student categories and student demographics. This study found statistical significance in Students of Promise characteristics and presents data on the behaviors, activities, and tools necessary for success, concerns surrounding COVID-19, …

The Covid-19 Pandemic And Its Influence On The Human Immune System, Nicole L. Riha

Undergraduate Honors Theses

COVID-19 rapidly infected the world, and scientists continue to research how the disease spread and killed as many as it did by analyzing how it affects the human immune system and referring to past pandemics. Since the pandemic is ongoing, scientists do not fully understand how the virus works and if lockdowns were effective. Nevertheless, a discussion on what is known about COVID-19's influence on the human immune system is needed. With an understanding of the COVID-19 pandemic, scientists can make more effective treatments for COVID-19 and learn how to manage future pandemics.

The Impacts Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Various Aspects Of Child And Adolescent Lives: A Literature Review, Alissa Carpenter

Undergraduate Honors Theses

Coronavirus 19 or COVID-19 is a spherical, enveloped virus that causes a lower respiratory tract infection with symptoms including pneumonia, fever, and difficulty breathing (Ochani et al., 2021). This virus caused a global pandemic that infected millions of people and killed over a million people. The aim of this literature review is to examine how the social-distance mandates and quarantines affected various aspects of child and adolescent life and development. This review examines language and speech impairment, behavioral changes/challenges, academic performance, mental health (specifically depression and anxiety), child abuse and neglect, and student-athlete experiences. The results found that language and …

Experiences With Covid-19 Stress Among Hispanic/Latino Farmworkers, Brenda Berumen-Flucker, Hadiza Galadima, Sylvia Shangani, Michele Kekeh, Muge Akpinar-Elci

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: Hispanics/Latinos, particularly those that identify as foreign-born, are overrepresented in the agricultural sector in the U.S. Over the course of the COVID-19 pandemic, this subpopulation of farmworkers was recognized as an invaluable group of essential workers unable to implement COVID-19 protections.

METHODS: Previously validated COVID-19 stress scale measures were identified, adapted, and translated to collect COVID-19 stress data from Hispanic/Latino agricultural workers in two heavily agricultural counties in northeastern North Carolina. Participants were recruited using purposive convenience sampling. Data collection took place from June to November of 2021.

RESULTS: The majority of Hispanic/Latino agricultural workers surveyed reported experiencing worries …

Lessons Learned From Interdisciplinary Efforts To Combat Covid-19 Misinformation: Development Of Agile Integrative Methods From Behavioral Science, Data Science, And Implementation Science, Sahiti Myneni, Paula Cuccaro, Sarah Montgomery, Vivek Pakanati, Jinni Tang, Tavleen Singh, Olivia Dominguez, Trevor Cohen, Belinda Reininger, Lara S Savas, Maria E Fernandez

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Despite increasing awareness about and advances in addressing social media misinformation, the free flow of false COVID-19 information has continued, affecting individuals' preventive behaviors, including masking, testing, and vaccine uptake.

OBJECTIVE: In this paper, we describe our multidisciplinary efforts with a specific focus on methods to (1) gather community needs, (2) develop interventions, and (3) conduct large-scale agile and rapid community assessments to examine and combat COVID-19 misinformation.

METHODS: We used the Intervention Mapping framework to perform community needs assessment and develop theory-informed interventions. To supplement these rapid and responsive efforts through large-scale online social listening, we developed a …

Evaluation Of Wic Online Ordering During The Covid-19 Pandemic: Evidence From An Oklahoma Grocery Store Chain, Qi Zhang, Junzhou Zhang, Kayoung Park, Chuanyi Tang

Community & Environmental Health Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic is worsening the disparities in food access in the United States. As consumers have been increasingly using grocery online ordering services to limit their exposure to the COVID-19 virus, participants of federal nutrition assistance programs lack the online benefit redemption option. With the support of the US Department of Agriculture (USDA), retailers are pilot-testing online food benefit ordering in the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants, and Children (WIC). By combining the Oklahoma WIC administrative data, the online ordering data from a grocery store chain in Oklahoma, and the COVID-19 data in Oklahoma, this study examines …

Gendered Leadership: Men And Women Governor’S Responses To Covid-19, Kate Gaulke

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

To alleviate a large-scale crisis, leaders have to choose mitigation strategies to best address the issue at hand while also avoiding the spread of panic among their constituents. This balancing act can be challenging and was especially demanding during the COVID-19 pandemic. The COVID-19 pandemic was not only a global health crisis, but also caused worldwide social, economic, and political turmoil. For three years, the pandemic riddled the United States with disease, economic hardship, food insecurity, and unemployment. Since its rise, COVID-19 has been the foremost concern on policy agendas nationwide. Governors, in particular, played a significant part in leading …

The Impact Of Countries' Leaders' Responses On Covid-19 Deaths, Kate Rumisek

Honors Undergraduate Theses

The COVID-19 pandemic was an unprecedented health crisis with consequences felt worldwide. While every country was impacted, each leader had a different response resulting in different consequences per nation. This paper evaluates the responses of three countries' leaders to the COVID-19 pandemic in relation to COVID-19-related deaths. The countries analyzed are New Zealand, Brazil, and the United States. New Zealand's Prime Minister's response was characterized as proactive and strict. Under the leadership of Bolsonaro, Brazil ignored the magnitude of the pandemic, leading to a lack of a cohesive national plan. The United States, led by President Trump, responded with a …

Restoring Confidence In Educational Technologies, Ariel Newman

Faculty Works

This article explores how adaptable digital learning tools, originally designed for K-12 education, can enhance engagement and comprehension in law school classrooms. In response to lingering skepticism toward educational technology following the pandemic, the article advocates for a strategic approach that integrates interactive and student-centered methods rather than reverting entirely to traditional instruction. Newman emphasizes the importance of leveraging digital tools that align with the learning preferences of Generation Z students, fostering more dynamic and effective legal education. By rethinking how technology is used in law schools, educators can create more engaging and responsive learning environments that better prepare students …

Pandemic-Related Posttraumatic Psychological Growth In U.S. Military Veterans: A 3-Year, Nationally Representative, Longitudinal Study, Hun Kang

Public Health Theses

Little is known about the positive psychological changes or posttraumatic growth (PTG) in response to the pandemic as the COVID-19 vaccines has become widely available. This longitudinal study aimed to characterize changes in the prevalence of pandemic-related PTG, and to identify and quantify the relative importance of PTG correlates pre-pandemic, 1- year peri-pandemic, and 2-years post-pandemic onset. A total of 2,441 U.S. military veterans completed Wave 3 assessment of the National Health and Resilience in Veterans Study. In the full sample, a significant decrease from peri-pandemic to 2-years post-pandemic onset was observed in overall pandemic-related PTG and four domains of …

Disaster Relief And Humanitarian Logistics: Three Essays, Peter H. Imbriale

2023

The increased frequency and impact of natural disasters and other humanitarian crises—including events such as the COVID-19 pandemic—makes studying disaster relief and recovery particularly important. One relevant area of research in this space is humanitarian logistics. This dissertation provides insights into disaster relief logistics by exploring the government’s role in humanitarian logistics, examining the government’s efforts to address COVID-19 medical supply chain challenges, and determining how to lessen the impact of supply chain bottlenecks from unwanted post-disaster donations. Chapter one (sole-authored) is a literature review of the role of governments in humanitarian logistics. Although governments are vital stakeholders in nearly …

Clinicians' Perceptions Of Telehealth Services During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Virginia, Johnetta Hill Guishard

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The onset of COVID-19 introduced unprecedented changes to how U.S. public health services were delivered. Many public and private agencies faced mandatory closures, social distancing mandates, and rapid transitions to telehealth interventions and treatment. Mental health clinicians witnessed disruptions in continuity of care and an increase in mental health risks overall. Although some studies have been conducted to survey clinicians’ perceptions of the usefulness and ease of use of technology-based interventions, knowledge about mental health clinicians’ experiences and perceptions in Virginia was sparse. The purpose of this generic qualitative study was to explore how mental health clinicians in Virginia described …

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 …

How The Increase In Remote Employees Due To Covid-19 Has Impacted Local Income Tax Revenues For U.S. Cities, Brian T. Pearson

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

This research paper will discuss COVID-19’s impact on remote work and its effect on local income taxes for cities across the United States. The paper specifically will be looking into how the increase in remote workers has affected revenue and policy changes for local income taxes since the pandemic. Before the pandemic, most US citizens with jobs had to be on-site, but COVID-19 seems to have changed how businesses are operating for the foreseeable future. A lot of businesses across the country have shifted to having more of their employees working fully remote or partially remote (hybrid) schedules. This has …

Analysis Of Covid-19 In Rural America, Ian Gabriel Derickson

Graduate Student Theses, Dissertations, & Professional Papers

The outbreak of the novel coronavirus (SARS-CoV-2) in Wuhan, China and subsequent global pandemic illustrated the need of accurate forecasting and a greater understanding of the underlying dynamics of infectious diseases.

In this dissertation, we examine the six most populous towns in the State of Montana through the lens of the classic SIR model. With this, we show that the six towns in question exhibit similar disease dynamics and population behavior within each wave. Furthermore, we conduct analysis on the age demographics of COVID-19 cases and deaths. This analysis corroborates the findings of the SIR model fits, in that the …

Workplace Aggression Against Healthcare Workers In A Spanish Healthcare Institution Between 2019 And 2021: The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic, Aitor Díaz, Mireia Utzet, Joan Mirabent, Pilar Diaz, Jose Maria Ramada, Consol Serra, Fernando G Benavides

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVES: Describe the incidence of first aggressions among healthcare workers (HCWs) before and during the COVID-19 pandemic in a Spanish healthcare institution, according to workers' socio-occupational characteristics and analyze the impact of the pandemic on it.

METHODS: A cohort involving HCWs who worked in the institution for at least 1 week each year from 1 January 2019 to 31 December 2021. Adjusted relative risks (aRR) were estimated using generalized estimating equations and negative binomial models to calculate the differences in WPA between the different time periods. All analyses were stratified by gender.

RESULTS: Among women, the incidence was 6.8% (6.0; …

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 …

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, …