Digital Commons Network^™

Assessing The Compliance Of Dental Clinicians Towards Regulatory Infection Control Guidelines Using A Newly Developed Survey Tool: A Pilot Cross-Sectional Study In India, Pragati Kaurani, Kavita Batra, Himangini Rathore Hooja, N. Gopi Chander, Anamitra Bhowmick, Suraj Arora, Suheel Manzoor Baba, Shafait Ullah Khateeb, Anshad M. Abdulla, Vishakha Grover, Priyanka Saluja

School of Medicine Faculty Research

Adherence to the dental practice regulatory guidelines instituted during the COVID- 19 pandemic is essential to minimize the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 strains. Given the lack of a valid and reliable survey tool to assess the adherence to dental practice guidelines, this study aims to develop, validate, and test a survey tool on a pilot sample of dental clinicians practicing in India. A survey tool was developed/validated through a sequential phasic approach: Phase Ideveloping survey using conceptual and literature framework; Phase II: ascertaining its validity and reliability; Phase III: pilot testing; and Phase IV: assessing construct validity by exploratory factor analysis …

Digitalizing Religion In The Age Of Covid-19: A Uses And Gratifications Perspective, Abdulaziz Altawil

Dissertations - ALL

The current COVID-19 pandemic has impacted people’s religious behavior around the world. Due to the coronavirus outbreak, most in-person religious services have shifted to virtual platforms. The online religious transition amidst the outbreak has alleviated many issues for worshippers as it provided them with a sanctuary space to connect with their faith and community. According to a 2020 Pew Research analysis, the pandemic has made many Americans change their religious habits by watching religious content online instead of physically engaging with their local religious institution. This dissertation provides a preliminary examination of this phenomenon by exploring the role of digital …

High-Yield Webinar Engagement Strategies And Teacher Candidate Professional Learning, Meghan Cosier, Sara Morgan, Audri Sandoval Gomez

Education Faculty Articles and Research

In response to the COVID-19 school closures in both K-12 and higher education, a group of education partners in the United States collaborated to offer a statewide webinar series, 12 webinars in total, to support preservice teachers as they worked to complete their clinical hour requirements. The webinars and extension activities provided via Padlets covered topics associated with best practices and related to credential requirements such as applying universal design for learning and differentiating instruction. This study explored the perceptions of 248 preservice teachers regarding the virtual professional learning format and extension activities, as well as what professional learning they …

Democratizing The Economy Or Introducing Economic Risk? Gig Work During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Daniel Auguste, Stephen Roll, Mathieu Despard

Social Policy Institute Research

Though the growth of the gig economy has coincided with increased economic precarity in the new economy, we know less about the extent to which gig work (compared with other self-employment arrangements and non-gig work) may fuel economic insecurity among American households. We fill this gap in the literature drawing on a sample of 4,756 workers from a unique national survey capturing economic hardships among non-standard workers like app-and platform-based gig and other self-employed workers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Results from generalized boosted regression modeling, utilizing machine learning to account for potential endogeneity, demonstrated that gig workers experienced significantly greater …

Electrochemical Biosensing And Deep Learning-Based Approaches In The Diagnosis Of Covid-19: A Review, Omer Sadak, Ferhat Sadak, Ozal Yildirim, Nicole M. Iverson, Rizwan Qureshi, Muhammed Talo, Chui Ping Ooi, U. Rajendra Acharya, Sundaram Gunasekaran, Tanvir Alam

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

COVID-19 caused by the transmission of SARS-CoV-2 virus taking a huge toll on global health and caused life-threatening medical complications and elevated mortality rates, especially among older adults and people with existing morbidity. Current evidence suggests that the virus spreads primarily through respiratory droplets emitted by infected persons when breathing, coughing, sneezing, or speaking. These droplets can reach another person through their mouth, nose, or eyes, resulting in infection. The "gold standard'' for clinical diagnosis of SARS-CoV-2 is the laboratory-based nucleic acid amplification test, which includes the reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) test on nasopharyngeal swab samples. The main concerns …

Health Literacy And New Mexico's Covid-19 Initiatives, Deborah J. Rhue

Posters and Presentations

No abstract provided.

Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook

Sustain Magazine

As the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic quickly spread from country to country and continent to continent in 2020, governments and scientists needed a way to track COVID-19 through populations in order to position public health interventions in the most impactful locations. Having a decision-based risk framework may help to guide policy creation that could minimize or prevent possible outbreaks and surges of infection within communities. The University of Louisville in partnership with Louisville’s Department of Public Health and Wellness tested this strategy in 2021 and 2022. This Wastewater-Informed Public Health Intervention Playbook describes the decisions and actions of that academic and public …

Formative Research To Inform Covid-19 Vaccine Education In Mississippi, Mmesoma I. Okafor

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Background. Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) vaccine rates in Mississippi are below the national average. Vaccine hesitance is particularly high among rural adults in Mississippi.Purpose. To investigate community members’ beliefs about the COVID-19 vaccine and perceived barriers and enablers of vaccination to inform the development of vaccine education materials.Methods. We conducted in-depth interviews with 20 adult community members in the Appalachian region of Mississippi. Interview notes were analyzed using thematic analysis.Results. Major themes identified were related to barriers and enablers of COVID-19 vaccination. Barriers included safety concerns such as a fear of side effects, fertility issues, death, and distrust of governing …

The Effect Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On Calls To The Mississippi Poison Control Center, Jenna Davis, Laura Lee Beneke, Michael B. Marlin, David Vearrier

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has the potential to change human exposure patterns to potentially hazardous substances including cleaning products and pharmaceuticals. Purpose: To characterize the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic on calls received at the Mississippi Poison Control Center during the pandemic as compared to pre-pandemic years. Methods: We queried the Mississippi Poison Control Center Toxicall database for total calls, calls related to bleach, disinfectants, and hand sanitizers, calls related to ivermectin exposures, calls related to hydroxychloroquine exposures, calls related to COVID-19, and suspected suicide calls. Results: During the COVID-19 pandemic increases were seen in calls for exposures to disinfectants …

American Indians And Covid-19: Morbidity And Mortality Disparities Among Indigenous Populations In The Rural South, Leslie Musshafen, Thomas E. Dobbs, Aaron Robinson, Thomas Wyatt, Michael Puskarich, Richard Summers, Seth Lirette, Caroline Compretta

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Background The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted health inequities among indigenous populations, with those in rural settings facing compounded barriers.Purpose To investigate morbidity and mortality experiences among hospitalized, COVID-19+ American Indian adults from rural and urban settings.Methods The described cross-sectional study used retrospective discharge data from the University of Mississippi Medical Center and Hennepin County Medical Center. Adults (≥ age 18) admitted from January 1, 2020 to August 8, 2021with a COVID-19 diagnosis and known race were included.Results A total of 3,659 inpatients met inclusion criteria. Among adults hospitalized with COVID-19 at the University of Mississippi Medical Center, American Indians (n=73) …

Designing A Community Engaged Training Program For African American And Latinx Communities On Covid-19 In South Mississippi: Results From Qualitative Focus Groups Exploring Community Member Perceptions, Susan Mayfield-Johnson Phd, Mches, Tanya Funchess, Charkarra Anderson-Lewis, Erica Thompson, Sandra Melvin, Mireya Alexander, Kierra Melvin, Samaria Lowe

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

Objective: The purpose of this study was to explore attitudes and perceptions on COVID awareness and education among African American and Latinx community members and stakeholders in South Mississippi through qualitative methods. Design: Virtual focus groups were conducted in Forrest, Hancock, Harrison, Hinds, and Jackson Counties through Zoom meetings. Community residents and stakeholders (N=56 total) participated. Zoom meetings were audio and video recorded, transcribed, and analyzed utilizing thematic analysis. A demographic survey was also administered. Results: Knowledge about COVID 19, vaccines, attitudes towards and beliefs about preventing COVID-19, intentions to prevent COVID-19, information seeking on COVID-19 preventative behaviors, and impact …

Relying On Young Ambassadors To Bolster Covid-19 Study Recruitment And Participation, Traci Hayes, Wendy White

Journal of Public Health in the Deep South

In June 2020, young adults comprised 20% of the COVID-19 cases and asymptomatic individuals were seen as “carriers” taking the virus into their homes and social settings. As with many health issues, the minority population was dealing with worse health outcomes. African Americans young adults were not excluded from this circumstance. In Mississippi, the group had some of the highest rates of COVID-19 in the state. Additionally, some young people across Mississippi were expressing that they felt unengaged and left out of the discussions on COVID-19. These concerns prompted the research project, Young Adults Against COVID-19 (YAACOV), a project under …

Race And The Rush To Reopen Schools During Covid-19, Emily M. Farris, Heather Silber Mohamed

Journal of Public Management & Social Policy

While the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted student learning in the spring of 2020 and impacted nearly all of the 55 million students in kindergarten to 12th grade nationwide, it also magnified significant racial inequities in schools and society. Generations of systemic racism left communities of color and their neighborhood schools more at risk during the crisis. Over the summer of 2020, school leaders and communities considered whether to reopen school campuses or keep buildings closed for the 2020-2021 academic school year, and media began to highlight racial and ethnic difference in attitudes about those plans. Consistent with popular …

The Great Resignation Among Restaurant Workers: A Content Analysis Of News Sources’ Portrayals Of The Covid-19 Labor Shortage, Mackenzie M. Williams

The Cardinal Edge

When workers left the labor market in large numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic, proclamations of a labor shortage emerged extensively throughout the news. In this study, I analyze the coverage of the worker shortage among three news sources with different political orientations. Several themes emerged from analyzing a total of 75 articles. The findings showed that the perspective shown in the article, the cause of the labor shortage, restaurant worker portrayal, support of solutions, and opinion of the labor shortage all differed based on the political identity of the news source. This research supports previous findings that show there is …

Development Of Tlc Fingerprinting Profile Of Shadanga Paniya – An Ayurvedic Formulation To Treat Symptoms Of Covid-19, Mehta D. Mehul, Kunal M. Gohil, Krunal A. Doshi

International Journal of Health and Allied Sciences

BACKGROUND: Shadanga Paniya is a compound Ayurvedic formulation that contains six ingredients. Ayurvedic Physicians have been using Shadanga Paniya to treat fever for ages. Symptoms of COVID-19 are also being treated by Shadanga Paniya. However, the Shadanga Paniya has not reported standardisation.

AIMS: To prepare Shadanga Paniya as per the standard classical protocol. To carry out qualitative tests, standardisation and TLC profile development for Shadanga Paniya.

MATERIALS AND METHODS: All the ingredients of Shadanga Paniya wiz. Nagarmotha, Pittapapada, Khasa, Lal Chandana, Sugandhbala and Sunthi were taken in equal amounts. All these ingredients are heated over mild heat with water. The …

How Did The Dietary Habits Of Patients With Chronic Medical Conditions Change During Covid-19?, Sahil K. Patel, Adarsh Gupta

Rowan-Virtua School of Osteopathic Medicine Departmental Research

CONTEXT: Previous studies have examined the changes in the dietary habits of general populations during the COVID-19 pandemic but have not focused on specific populations such as those with chronic medical conditions (CMCs). Prior to major vaccination efforts, 96.1% of deaths were attributed to patients with preexisting CMCs, thus it is important to examine how this population has endured changes.

OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to identify differences in dietary habits, lifestyle habits, and food attitudes between those with CMCs compared to the populations without chronic medical conditions (non-CMCs) since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.

METHODS: An …

The Relationship Between Technology Readiness And Online Professional Development, Scott Farrell Ringkamp

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this quantitative, correlational study is to determine if there is a relationship between technology readiness and grades, the number of attempts taken, or the time it took to complete an online professional development. Because of the pandemic, much educator professional development has shifted online. When this occurred, many teachers were unprepared to make this shift. To study the relationship, the researcher surveyed 73 staff members of an LEA in central Pennsylvania using the Technology Readiness Index 2.0 instrument. Then, the researcher computed a correlation coefficient between each participant’s Technology Readiness Index score and their grades, number of …

Winonan, Winona State University

The Winonan - 2020s

This issue of the Winonan student newspaper was published September 7, 2022.

The Shift In The Authority Of Islamic Religious Education: A Qualitative Content Analysis On Online Religious Teaching, Maemonah Maemonah, Sigit Purnama, Rohinah Rohinah, Hafidh 'Aziz, Abda Billah Faza Muhammadkan Bastian, Ahmad Syafii

The Qualitative Report

The COVID-19 pandemic has changed people’s social behavior in various fields, especially education and religion. Religious learning activities through social media have increased along with the shift from offline to online learning. Restrictions on physical activity encourage increased online activity. Religious education and teaching began to shift from traditional face-to-face to online teaching. Educational institutions no longer monopolize Islamic religious education. This study examines the shift in religious education authority due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This study has analyzed videos of popular religious studies broadcast on social media, YouTube, and Facebook using a qualitative content analysis method. This study finds …

Emerging Lessons From The Covid-19 Pandemic About The Decisive Competencies Needed For The Public Health Workforce: A Qualitative Study, Osnat Bashkin, Robert Otok, Lore Leighton, Kasia Czabanowska, Paul Barach, Nadav Davidovitch, Keren Dopelt, Mariusz Duplaga, Leah Okenwa Emegwa, Fiona Macleod, Yehuda Neumark, Maya Peled Raz, Theodore Tulchinsky, Zohar Mor

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

The global COVID-19 crisis exposed the critical need for a highly qualified public health workforce. This qualitative research aimed to examine public health workforce competencies needed to face COVID-19 challenges and identify the gaps between training programs and the competency demands of real-world disasters and pandemics. Through a sample of thirty-one participant qualitative interviews, we examined the perspectives of diverse stakeholders from lead public health organizations in Israel. Grounded Theory was used to analyze the data. Six themes emerged from the content analysis: public health workforce's low professional status and the uncertain future of the public health workforce; links between …

Pre-Exposure To Mrna-Lnp Inhibits Adaptive Immune Responses And Alters Innate Immune Fitness In An Inheritable Fashion, Zhen Qin, Aurélie Bouteau, Christopher Herbst, Botond Z. Igyártó

Department of Microbiology and Immunology Faculty Papers

Hundreds of millions of SARS-CoV-2 mRNA-LNP vaccine doses have already been administered to humans. However, we lack a comprehensive understanding of the immune effects of this platform. The mRNA-LNP-based SARS-CoV-2 vaccine is highly inflammatory, and its synthetic ionizable lipid component responsible for the induction of inflammation has a long in vivo half-life. Since chronic inflammation can lead to immune exhaustion and non-responsiveness, we sought to determine the effects of pre-exposure to the mRNA-LNP on adaptive immune responses and innate immune fitness. We found that pre-exposure to mRNA-LNPs or LNP alone led to long-term inhibition of the adaptive immune response, which …

Overview Of The Clef-2022 Checkthat! Lab Task 2 On Detecting Previously Fact-Checked Claims, Preslav Nakov, Giovanni Da San Martino, Firoj Alam, Shaden Shaar, Hamdy Mubarak, Nikolay Babulkov

Natural Language Processing Faculty Publications

We describe the fourth edition of the CheckThat! Lab, part of the 2022 Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF). The lab evaluates technology supporting three tasks related to factuality, and it covers seven languages such as Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, German, Spanish, and Turkish. Here, we present the task 2, which asks to detect previously fact-checked claims (in two languages). A total of six teams participated in this task, submitted a total of 37 runs, and most submissions managed to achieve sizable improvements over the baselines using transformer based models such as BERT, RoBERTa. In this paper, we …

Overview Of The Clef-2022 Checkthat! Lab Task 1 On Identifying Relevant Claims In Tweets, Preslav Nakov, Alberto Barrón-Cedeño, Giovanni Da San Martino, Firoj Alam, Mucahid Kutlu, Wajdi Zaghouani, Mucahid Kutlu, Wajdi Zaghouani, Chengkai Li, Shaden Shaar, Hamdy Mubarak, Alex Nikolov

Natural Language Processing Faculty Publications

We present an overview of CheckThat! lab 2022 Task 1, part of the 2022 Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF). Task 1 asked to predict which posts in a Twitter stream are worth fact-checking, focusing on COVID-19 and politics in six languages: Arabic, Bulgarian, Dutch, English, Spanish, and Turkish. A total of 19 teams participated and most submissions managed to achieve sizable improvements over the baselines using Transformer-based models such as BERT and GPT-3. Across the four subtasks, approaches that targetted multiple languages (be it individually or in conjunction, in general obtained the best performance. We describe the …

Amjambo Africa! (September 2022), Kathreen Harrison

Amjambo Africa!

In this Issue

Moonglade............................. 4-5

Education............................. 6-10

In 7 languages

General Assistance ...........11-13

In 7 languages

Market Basket ...................14-15

All about the Workforce ........18

Community Happenings ......20

Amjambo Arts ........................21

Ugandan athletes ....................22

Rwandan hero .........................23

Health & Wellness.............24-31

In 7 languages

International & Maine updates .................... 33

New Voices feature........... 34-35

Financial literacy ....................35

Nonprofit updates ............36-37

Tips & Info.............................. 38

Twilytics: A Social Perception Analysis Of Public Transit Systems During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Egbe-Etu Etu, Imokhai Tenebe, Ankur Parma, Likhitha Yelamanchili, Dang Minh Nhu Nguyen, Louis Tran, Ihor Markevych

Mineta Transportation Institute

In the United States, public transit ridership in 2020 declined by 79% compared to 2019 levels. With lockdowns implemented during the early days of the pandemic, direct human-to-human interactions migrated to virtual platforms (e.g., Facebook, Twitter, and Reddit). Social media platforms have aided researchers in answering numerous questions about current societal dilemmas, including COVID-19. This study investigates the public’s perception of transit systems via a social media analysis given the emergence of vaccines and other COVID-19 preventive measures. Findings revealed themes of fear and confusion concerning the use of public transportation during the pandemic. The public had doubts regarding the …

Suicide Numbers During The First 9-15 Months Of The Covid-19 Pandemic Compared With Pre-Existing Trends: An Interrupted Time Series Analysis In 33 Countries, Jane Pirkis, David Gunnell, Sangsoo Shin, Marcos Del Pozo-Banos, Vikas Arya, Pablo Analuisa Aguilar, Louis Appleby, S. M. Yasir Arafat, Ella Arensman, Murad Khan

Department of Psychiatry

Background: Predicted increases in suicide were not generally observed in the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the picture may be changing and patterns might vary across demographic groups. We aimed to provide a timely, granular picture of the pandemic's impact on suicides globally.
Methods: We identified suicide data from official public-sector sources for countries/areas-within-countries, searching websites and academic literature and contacting data custodians and authors as necessary. We sent our first data request on 22nd June 2021 and stopped collecting data on 31st October 2021. We used interrupted time series (ITS) analyses to model the association between the …

Private Censorship, Disinformation And The First Amendment: Rethinking Online Platforms Regulation In The Era Of A Global Pandemic, Tzu- Chiang Huang

Michigan Technology Law Review

The proliferation of online disinformation and the rise of private censorship are paradigmatic examples of the challenges to traditional First Amendment jurisprudence in an algorithmic society. The limitations of traditional First Amendment jurisprudence are amplified by the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in two ways. On the one hand, in the wake of the pandemic, we have entered an “infodemic” era where the volume of disinformation, as well as the harm it causes have reached unprecedented levels. For example, health disinformation has contributed to vaccine hesitancy. On the other hand, even though the proliferation of online disinformation seems to suggest …

No Leave To Grieve: How Misfit Frameworks And America's "Grief Tsunami" Require Better Bereavement Policy, Katherine S. Hanson

Marquette Benefits and Social Welfare Law Review

The COVID-19 pandemic fueled America’s recent death surge: 2021 has become the deadliest year on record in the United States. Scholars and commentators claim that the American workplace re-mains unprepared for the impending “grief tsunami” in the wake of such pervasive loss. Likewise, American law is ill-equipped for workplace grief. Bereavement, while medically “normal,” lacks a substantial foothold in workplace benefits and in the law. Currently, organizations bear the burden of developing their own policies—and where available, these policies remain insufficient to accommodate the myriad logistical and emotional complexities associated with the loss of a loved one. In the event …

The Effect Of Lockdown, Economic Stimulus Package And National Recovery Plan Announcements On The Malaysian Stock Market, Kok Jun Tan, Mohd Edil Abd Sukor

Research Publications (2021 to 2025)

This research aims to investigate the effect of lockdown, economic stimulus package and national recovery plan announcements during the Covid-19 pandemic on the Malaysian stock market. The study employs an event study methodology. A sample of 13 sectorial indexes are selected. The sample period taken for the study is from January 2, 2019 to October 29, 2021. The results of the study suggest that all events i.e., lockdown, economic stimulus packages and recovery plan announcements have significantly affect the stock market. Nevertheless, the impact varies across time periods. For example, the first three Movement Control Order (MCO) 1.0, 2.0 and …

Agreement Between Sars-Cov-2 Pcr Test Results Using Nasopharyngeal And Mid-Turbinate Specimens Among Asymptomatic Working-Age Adults, Judy Wendt Hess, Faiyaz Bhojani, Derrick Cameron, Mary Freire De Carvalho, Fayaz Momin

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

OBJECTIVE: The aim of this study was to determine whether mid-turbinate specimens reliably detect active infection in asymptomatic adults undergoing regular COVID-19 PCR testing.

METHODS: Qualitative agreement between 2481 paired nasopharyngeal and mid-turbinate PCR results was assessed. Mean cycle threshold values for each positive result were evaluated as an indicator of active infection.

RESULTS: Overall agreement between nasopharyngeal and mid-turbinate tests was 98.4%. Positive percent agreement was 37.2%, and negative percent agreement was ~100%. Test pairs with lower cycle thresholds (≤30 and ≤25) reached 67% and 100% positive percent agreement, respectively.

CONCLUSIONS: SARS-CoV-2 infections with high viral loads were detected …