Digital Commons Network^™

Where I Am From Matters: Factors Influencing Behavioral And Emotional Changes In Autistic Individuals During Covid-19 In Latin America, María Cecilia Montenegro, Ana C. Ramirez, Juventino Hernandez Rodriguez, Bianca T. Villalobos, Gabriela Garrido, Cecilia Amigo, Daniel Valdez, Natalia Barrios, Sebastián Cukier, Cecilia Montiel-Nava

Psychological Science Faculty Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic brought an increased incidence of disease and mortality in the world at large, making it a particularly salient and stressful life event. For those individuals residing in Latin America, the pandemic was met with fragmented healthcare systems, economic downturn, and sociopolitical crisis which puts autistic individuals at risk for more detrimental outcomes. Behavioral and emotional challenges experienced by autistic individuals at the beginning of the pandemic could later develop into more severe symptomatology as the pandemic progresses. The present study aimed to explore changes in dysregulated (overt and internalizing) behaviors and preoccupation with getting sick during …

Leveraging Mhealth To Mitigate The Impact Of Covid-19 In Black American Communities: Qualitative Analysis, Kelly M Harris, Tilicia Mayo Gamble, Madelyn G Yoo, Lindsay A Spell, Timira N Minor, Holly Jones, Donald Lynch

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: COVID-19 remains an ongoing public health crisis. Black Americans remain underrepresented among those vaccinated and overrepresented in both COVID-19 morbidity and mortality. Medical misinformation, specifically related to COVID-19, has exacerbated the impact of the disease in Black American communities. Communication tools and strategies to build relationships and disseminate credible and trustworthy diagnostic and preventative health information are necessary to improve outcomes and equity for historically oppressed populations.

OBJECTIVE: As the initial phase of a larger mixed methods project to develop, pilot, and evaluate a mobile health (mHealth) intervention among a population at high risk for COVID-19 and cardiovascular comorbidities, …

Evaluation Of A Targeted Covid-19 Community Outreach Intervention: Case Report For Precision Public Health, Isela De La Cerda, Cici X Bauer, Kehe Zhang, Miryoung Lee, Michelle Jones, Arturo Rodriguez, Joseph B Mccormick, Susan P Fisher-Hoch

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: Cameron County, a low-income south Texas-Mexico border county marked by severe health disparities, was consistently among the top counties with the highest COVID-19 mortality in Texas at the onset of the pandemic. The disparity in COVID-19 burden within Texas counties revealed the need for effective interventions to address the specific needs of local health departments and their communities. Publicly available COVID-19 surveillance data were not sufficiently timely or granular to deliver such targeted interventions. An agency-academic collaboration in Cameron used novel geographic information science methods to produce granular COVID-19 surveillance data. These data were used to strategically target an …

Intimate Partner Violence And Spirituality: A Healing Process, Sheila Diane Lundquist

Doctoral Dissertations and Projects

The purpose of this qualitative phenomenological study is to understand how intimate partner violence (IPV) survivors, from the Atlanta area, use spirituality to heal from the abuse. The theory guiding this study is Maslow’s (1954) Hierarchy of Needs as it shows how spirituality helped these women meet the needs on the hierarchy after having many of the needs ripped from them by the perpetrator(s). Intimate partner violence is a fundamental problem in the United States, especially during these times of COVID-19 and the stay-at home orders. Intimate partner violence takes a toll on the family unit, the community, and the …

An Investigation Of The Impact Of Prosocial Action On Psychological Resilience In Female Volunteer Maskmakers During Covid-19, Linda D. Montano

Industrial-Organizational Psychology Dissertations

Building and maintaining psychological resilience is important because it mediates the impact of stress on life outcomes such as depression, life satisfaction, and well-being. The purpose of this dissertation was to assess the impact of prosocial action as a way to enhance resilience and reduce the impact of adversity. Using 12 waves of longitudinal data collected from 86 female volunteer maskmakers in the U.S. between April and July 2020, this study assessed the hypothesis that the prosocial action of maskmaking will moderate the impact of the stress of the COVID-19 pandemic such that at higher levels of maskmaking, the volunteer’s …

Influence Of Gender Identity On The Adoption Of Religious-Spiritual, Preventive And Emotion-Focused Coping Strategies During The Covid-19 Pandemic In Pakistan, Saeed Ahmad, Sara Rizvi Jafree

Sociology and Anthropology Student Research

Background

Academic research has highlighted the gendered impacts and amplifications of gender disparities of COVID-19. Traditionally, Pakistan is a patriarchal society, where it is a parenthood norm to socialize specific gender social roles.

Objectives

The current research asserts that these normative gender roles may influence individuals throughout their life course, even during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, the present study explored the influence of gender identity in adopting different coping strategies such as religious-spiritual, preventive, emotion-focused and non-constructive coping against the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Due to the lockdown in various areas of Pakistan, data were collected through an online questionnaire using …

Impact Of Covid-19 On Recruitment Of High School Athletes To Di Track And Field, Christopher Haub, Jon Paugh, Alonso Salcido, Monnie Mcgee

SMU Data Science Review

Due to COVID-19, in the spring of 2020, the NCAA gave scholarship athletes an extra year of eligibility but did not increase the number of scholarships a school could issue. This potentially led to increased competition for scholarships as coaches could choose between retaining athletes or recruiting new ones. Furthermore, the Spring 2020 track and field season for high school seniors ended early – limiting high school athletes’ chance to get their best scores, and interrupting student to college interaction. This research looks specifically at the impact of COVID-19, and the resulting NCAA policy changes, on the recruitment to DI …

Positive Effects Of Health Behaviors Acquired During The Covid-19 Pandemic Process On The Prevention Of Other Infectious Diseases, Asi̇ye Çi̇ğdem Şi̇mşek, Turan Buzgan, Fatma Nur Baran Aksakal, Şuayip Bi̇ri̇nci̇, Hülya Şi̇ri̇n

Turkish Journal of Medical Sciences

Background/aim: It was aimed to evaluate the positive effects of health behaviors (general hygiene, wearing face masks, physical distancing, and travel restrictions) acquired during the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic on the prevention of other infectious diseases in Ankara Province, Türkiye. Materials and methods: This study was designed retrospectively. Among the notifiable group A infectious diseases, acute intestinal infections (AIIs) with International Classification of Diseases, Tenth Revision diagnosis codes A09 (diarrhea and gastroenteritis presumed to be of infectious origin), R11 (nausea and vomiting), and K52 (other noninfectious gastroenteritis and colitis) , as well as influenza, tuberculosis, measles, varicella, malaria, and …

Patterns And Predictors Of Racial/Ethnic Disparities In Hiv Care Continuum In The Southern Usa: Protocol For A Population-Based Cohort Study, Xueying Yang Ph.D., Jiajia Zhang Ph.D., Bankole Olatosi Ph.D., Zhenlong Li, Sharon Weissman, Xiaoming Li Ph.D.

Faculty Publications

Introduction Health disparities exist at every step of the HIV care continuum (HCC) among racial/ethnic minority population. Such racial/ethnic disparities may have significantly delayed the progress in HCC in the Southern US states that are strongly represented among geographic focus areas in the 2019 federal initiative titled 'Ending the HIV Epidemic: A Plan for America'. However, limited efforts have been made to quantify the long-term spatiotemporal variations of HCC disparities and their contributing factors over time, particularly in the context of COVID-19 pandemic. This project aims to identify the spatiotemporal patterns of racial disparities of each HCC outcome and then …

Public Mental Health Through Social Media In The Post Covid-19 Era, Deepika Sharma, Jaiteg Singh, Babar Shah, Farman Ali, Ahmad Ali Alzubi, Mallak Ahmad Alzubi

All Works

Social media is a powerful communication tool and a reflection of our digital environment. Social media acted as an augmenter and influencer during and after COVID-19. Many of the people sharing social media posts were not actually aware of their mental health status. This situation warrants to automate the detection of mental disorders. This paper presents a methodology for the detection of mental disorders using micro facial expressions. Micro-expressions are momentary, involuntary facial expressions that can be indicative of deeper feelings and mental states. Nevertheless, manually detecting and interpreting micro-expressions can be rather challenging. A deep learning HybridMicroNet model, based …

The Dna Glycosylase Neil2 Is Protective During Sars-Cov-2 Infection, Nisha Tapryal, Anirban Chakraborty, Kaushik Saha, Azharul Islam, Lang Pan, Koa Hosoki, Ibrahim M Sayed, Jason M Duran, Joshua Alcantara, Vanessa Castillo, Courtney Tindle, Altaf H Sarker, Maki Wakamiya, Victor J Cardenas, Gulshan Sharma, Laura E Crotty Alexander, Sanjiv Sur, Debashis Sahoo, Gourisankar Ghosh, Soumita Das, Pradipta Ghosh, Istvan Boldogh, Tapas K Hazra

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

SARS-CoV-2 infection-induced aggravation of host innate immune response not only causes tissue damage and multiorgan failure in COVID-19 patients but also induces host genome damage and activates DNA damage response pathways. To test whether the compromised DNA repair capacity of individuals modulates the severity of COVID-19 infection, we analyze DNA repair gene expression in publicly available patient datasets and observe a lower level of the DNA glycosylase NEIL2 in the lungs of severely infected COVID-19 patients. This observation of lower NEIL2 levels is further validated in infected patients, hamsters and ACE2 receptor-expressing human A549 (A549-ACE2) cells. Furthermore, delivery of recombinant …

Opportunities For Mental Health Interventions In Rural Mississippi Communities During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Quantitative Analysis, Brice Fortinberry

Theses and Dissertations

COVID-19 presented unique challenges for rural Mississippi communities including impacts on the mental health of rural individuals. This research study aimed to identify opportunities for mental health interventions to provide health promotion professionals with quantitative data on the accessibility and the likelihood of engagement with mental health-fostering behaviors. A secondary objective of this research was to categorize these behaviors within the constructs of the Social Ecological Model. Demographics for rural Mississippi communities were collected and displayed, and using multivariate analyses including Spearman’s correlation and a Mann-Whitney U test the correlation between mental health fostering behaviors and demographic factors was obtained. …

Change In Air Cargo Revenue Before Vs During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Ali Abushal, Timothy R. Buchal, Ethan Noto, Brooke Wheeler, Vivek Sharma

Aeronautics Student Publications

This study aimed to investigate the changes in revenue experienced by cargo airlines before and during the COVID-19 pandemic. To gather the necessary data, information was sourced from the Securities and Exchange Commission's (SEC) databases and the websites of the specific airlines. The findings of this study revealed significant shifts in revenue for cargo airlines during the pandemic. Some airlines experienced an unexpected rise in revenue, challenging our previous understanding of the industry dynamics. These findings highlighted the importance of conducting a comprehensive analysis that includes a larger view of the aviation sector.

The COVID-19 pandemic had a profound impact …

Wellness Review 2023, Part 1, Brian A. Ferguson, Martin Huecker

Journal of Wellness

Introduction: The 2023 Part 1 summary reviews research on wellness in healthcare professionals published outside of JWellness from January 1, 2023 to June 30, 2023.

Methods: Editors conducted a Boolean search of titles and abstracts in PubMed utilizing keyword identifiers pairing healthcare personnel (providers, nurses, and other staff) with a well-being metric. Of 416 relevant articles, an intriguing and innovative 30 were selected for inclusion, with two additional articles manually curated.

Literature in Review: This sample of the recent literature into healthcare professional wellness included multiple targeted interventions and studies of resilience. Main themes that emerged include: positive systematic healthcare …

Academic Outcomes Of The Covid-19 Pandemic: Awareness And Action, Tanner B. Howe

Masters Projects

Research has shown that the online learning implemented during the COVID-19-related school closures had impacts on academic outcomes among secondary students. As schools operate in proximity to this event, it is crucial to investigate and understand those academic outcomes. Research suggests that mathematics and reading/language courses displayed negative academic outcomes for the period of online learning. Through this investigation, stress was observed to have played a major role during this period for secondary students and may have also contributed to the academic outcomes observed. This project seeks to raise awareness of possible student educational needs by shining light on the …

Interest In And Barriers To Online Esol Instruction For Adults During And Beyond Covid-19: Exploring Relationships With Sociodemographics And English Proficiency, Jessica G. Cox, Lauren Y. Chen, Harriet Okatch

College of Population Health Faculty Papers

Digital divides mean that marginalized groups such as adults who speak English as a second or other language (ESOL) are less likely to have access to online instruction. Higher levels of English proficiency are associated with better health and employment; therefore, access to ESOL classes is essential. We investigated how sociodemographics and English proficiency relate to adult learners' preferences for, and barriers to, online instruction of ESOL during and beyond the COVID-19 pandemic. Sixty-one adults completed a survey on their pandemic experiences, demographics, and ESOL classes. Analyses showed nonsignificant relationships between interest in online instruction and internet access, education, income, …

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Hispanic Restaurants In South-Central Texas: A Qualitative Study, Javier Apolinar

Theses & Dissertations

Research Focus. The COVID-19 pandemic generated a major crisis for the restaurant industry in 2020 and 2021. The nationwide shutdown resulted in widespread restrictions on social gatherings, significantly impacting this industry. Hispanic businesses were not immune to this crisis, and its impact had profound effects on small businesses.

Most of the research in this field has primarily concentrated on small businesses and entrepreneurship under favorable circumstances, highlighting factors such as entrepreneurial drive, maximizing profits, taking risks, developing ideas, and promoting fair competition. Consequently, the current body of research is insufficient and fails to address the specific experiences of minority small …

Patient Satisfaction With Telemedicine In The Philippines During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Mixed Methods Study, Alicia Victoria G. Noceda, Lianne Margot M. Acierto, Morvenn Chaimek C. Bertiz, David Emmanuel H. Dionisio, Chelsea Beatrice L. Laurito, Girrard Alphonse T. Sanchez, Arianna Maever Loreche

Ateneo School of Medicine and Public Health Publications

Background: The capacity to deliver essential health services has been negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, particularly due to lockdown restrictions. Telemedicine provides a safe, efficient, and effective alternative that addresses the needs of patients and the health system. However, there remain implementation challenges and barriers to patient adoption in resource-limited settings as in the Philippines. This mixed methods study aimed to describe patient perspectives and experiences with telemedicine services, and explore the factors that influence telemedicine use and satisfaction. Methods: An online survey consisting of items adapted from the Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (CAHPS) Clinician & …

Online Qualitative Research With Vulnerable Populations In The Philippines: Ethical And Methodological Challenges During Covid-19, Vincen Gregory Yu, Jhaki Mendoza, Gideon Lasco

Development Studies Faculty Publications

Our article draws on two multi-sited studies to present the ethical and methodological challenges of conducting online qualitative research among vulnerable populations in the Philippines—specifically, among people who use drugs—during the COVID-19 pandemic. While the global scholarship has long articulated the difficulties inherent to pursuing research on such populations, we show how the specific milieu of the Philippines in the last three years has created exceptional, structural challenges to the conduct of said research. Besides the inevitable migration to online fieldwork brought about by the pandemic, researchers have had to contend with the continuing sociopolitical and existential threat to vulnerable …

Emergency Remote Teaching And Transition To Nursing Practice During The Covid-19 Pandemic: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Carrie Watkins Jeffrey

UNLV Theses, Dissertations, Professional Papers, and Capstones

Purpose: The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the lived experience of new nurses in the United States who experienced Emergency Remote Teaching (ERT) for most or all of their nursing education during the COVID-19 pandemic and how they perceive ERT influenced their transition to practice during their first year as registered nurses.

Background: The National Council of State Boards of Nursing reports that in 2021, the overall pass rate for first-time NCLEX-RN® demonstrated the sharpest decline since 2013. Most of the 185,000 nursing students who took the exam in 2021 and 2022 received their nursing education during …

The Experiences Of Leaders Who Transitioned To Leading A Virtual Team During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Phenomenological Study., Jason W. Oliver

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The COVID-19 pandemic led to organizations rapidly transitioning their workforces to virtual work settings. This sudden shift brought about many challenges to organizations and their employees. In this study, a phenomenological research approach was used to describe the lived experiences of leaders who transitioned to managing a virtual team during the COVID-19 pandemic. The study also explored how leaders adapted their leadership practices and leveraged people and technology when transitioning to managing a virtual team. The findings revealed seven themes that highlighted both benefits and challenges of virtual leadership and work. Leaders recognized the need for intentionality in their actions …

(R2059) Modeling The Spread Of Coronavirus With Self-Protection And Quarantine Effect, Dileep Sharma, Agraj Tripathi, Ram Naresh Tripathi

Applications and Applied Mathematics: An International Journal (AAM)

A nonlinear mathematical model to study the effect of transmission dynamics of COVID-19 virus in a population with variable size structure is proposed and analyzed. The model divides the total human population into five subclasses: susceptibles, self-protected susceptibles, infectives, quarantined infectives, and recovered population including a class representing cumulative density of coronavirus in the environmental reservoir. The model exhibits two equilibria, namely, the diseasefree and the endemic equilibrium. Model analysis reveals the global dynamics of the spread of COVID-19 is completely determined by the basic reproduction number. If basic reproduction number is greater than one, the endemic equilibrium is locally …

Associations Between Mental Health Outcomes And Childhood Trauma And Experiences Of Violence During The First Shelter-In-Place For Covid-19 Among Sexual Minority Men Living In Texas, 2020, Sonam Deki

Open Access Theses & Dissertations

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic significantly increased mental health issues, disproportionately affecting men who have sex with men (MSM). The relationship between mental health and experiences of trauma and violence are understudied in this population. Purpose: To assess if rates of childhood trauma and COVID-19-related violence are higher for those with depression and anxiety than those without such experiences among cisgender sexual minority men in Texas. Methods: This secondary data analysis is among the cisgender sexual minority men in the COVID-19 and You Survey Study in Texas during the first shelter-in-place order. Descriptive statistics and bivariate associations between trauma and experiences …

Immune Evasion And Membrane Fusion Of Sars-Cov-2 Xbb Subvariants Eg51 And Xbb23, Julia N Faraone, Panke Qu, Negin Goodarzi, Yi-Min Zheng, Claire Carlin, Linda J Saif, Eugene M Oltz, Kai Xu, Daniel Jones, Richard J Gumina, Shan-Lu Liu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Immune evasion by SARS-CoV-2 paired with immune imprinting from monovalent mRNA vaccines has resulted in attenuated neutralizing antibody responses against Omicron subvariants. In this study, we characterized two new XBB variants rising in circulation - EG.5.1 and XBB.2.3, for their neutralization and syncytia formation. We determined the neutralizing antibody titers in sera of individuals that received a bivalent mRNA vaccine booster, BA.4/5-wave infection, or XBB.1.5-wave infection. Bivalent vaccination-induced antibodies neutralized ancestral D614G efficiently, but to a much less extent, two new EG.5.1 and XBB.2.3 variants. In fact, the enhanced neutralization escape of EG.5.1 appeared to be driven by its key …

Prevalence Of Substance Use Among Lesbian, Gay, And Bisexual High School Students In 2019 Vs. 2021, Jordyn Lee, Elisabeth Hayes, Adam Wyatt

Nursing & Health Sciences Research Journal

Background: Studies suggest that LGBTQ+ (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, plus) youth are at increased risk of engaging in alcohol and substance use. The COVID-19 pandemic forced many students to isolate in 2020 and 2021, and the impacts of this have been purported to be detrimental. This study examines the prevalence of alcohol and substance use among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) U.S. high school students before the pandemic in 2019 versus 2021. Methods: This cross-sectional descriptive study used results from the 2019 Youth Risk Behavior Survey (YRBS) and the 2021 Adolescent Behavior and Experiences Survey (ABES). The 2019 YRBS …

Covid-19 Vaccine Uptake In The Hispanic And Latinx Communities Of Northeast Tennessee, Gabriela Abrego

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This work addresses the underlying issues surrounding COVID-19 vaccine uptake in Hispanic and Latinx communities in the Northeast region of Tennessee. A qualitative, phenomenological research approach was used to conduct interviews and data from the interviews was used to inform a survey instrument. The interview guide in the qualitative phase of the study was based on the Health Belief Model (HBM) developed by Rosenstock (Rosenstock, 1974). A quantitative approach was then used by piloting the survey instrument in the study population. Common themes found through the interviews were: previous negative experience with COVID-19 vaccination, previous negative experience as a result …

The Experiences Of Students During Covid-19 School Disruptions, Brandi Bullock

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this study was to identify the perceptions of educators with respect to student experiences between March 2020 and February 2021 related to academics, social-emotional health, and safety and security. Data collection strategies included one-on-one interviews with 12 educators in one East Tennessee school district. To qualify for the study, participants had to have taught during COVID-19 schooling disruptions and have taught either 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th grade in the 2022-23 school year. Data analysis was based on Systems Theory (Laszlo & Krippner, 1998) and Change Theory (Fullan, 2020). The results revealed 5 key themes that …

A Snapshot In Time: Consumer Behavior At The Start Of Covid-19, Michelle L. Childs, Christopher Sneed, Ann A. Berry, Sejin Ha

Journal of Human Sciences and Extension

During the early stages of the coronavirus pandemic, consumers faced challenges related to obtaining household items due to shortages and limitations in shopping. Researchers from the University of Tennessee conducted a national, web-based consumer survey of 300 consumers in late April 2020 to better understand consumer behavior, shopping patterns, and demand shifts for goods and services. Major findings demonstrate that consumers have increased shopping for essential products from brick-and-mortar national chains, avoided brick-and-mortar small businesses, and have chosen to shop more by themselves, often choosing to forgo spending from across all product categories, compared to prior to the pandemic. Additionally, …

How Societal Forces Of Change Are Transforming Youth Physical Activity Promotion In North America, Jacob Szeszulski, Jamie M Faro, Rodney P Joseph, Kevin Lanza, Lucie Lévesque, Courtney M Monroe, Elsa A Pérez-Paredes, Erica G Soltero, Rebecca E Lee

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Background: Climate change, increasing recognition of institutionalized discrimination, and the COVID-19 pandemic are large-scale, societal events (ie, forces of change) that affect the timing, settings, and modes of youth physical activity. Despite the impact that forces of change have on youth physical activity and physical activity environments, few studies consider how they affect physical activity promotion.

Methods: The authors use 2 established frameworks, the ecological model of physical activity and the youth physical activity timing, how, and setting framework, to highlight changes in physical activity patterns of youth in North America that have resulted from contemporary forces of change.

Results: …

Digital Vs. Traditional: Comparing Sales Students' Initial Post- College Career Search Preferences Before And After Covid-19, Linda Mullen, Randy Stuart, Michael L. Thomas

Journal of Applied Marketing Theory

This study explores the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the

career search strategies of college students studying professional

sales. The research consists of a post-pandemic study that is

compared to a previous study conducted pre-pandemic in 2019. The

paper investigates the preference of sales students for digital

media versus face-to-face interactions in their career searches.

The pre-pandemic study revealed that while sales students

engaged with digital media, they still heavily relied on traditional

methods. The post-pandemic results differed primarily in students’

interviewing preferences. Despite the challenges posed by the

pandemic, students continue to utilize both online and traditional

resources. …