Digital Commons Network^™

Continuing To Confront Copd International Surveys: Comparison Of Patient And Physician Perceptions About Copd Risk And Management, Ana M. Menezes, Sarah H. Landis, Meilan K. Han, Hana Muellerova, Zaurbek Aisanov, Thys Van Der Molen, Yeon-Mok Oh, Masakazu Ichinose, David M. Mannino, Kourtney J. Davis

Preventive Medicine and Environmental Health Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Using data from the Continuing to Confront COPD International Physician and Patient Surveys, this paper describes physicians' attitudes and beliefs regarding chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) prognosis, and compares physician and patient perceptions with respect to COPD.

METHODS: In 12 countries worldwide, 4,343 patients with COPD were identified through systematic screening of population samples, and 1,307 physicians who regularly saw patients with COPD were sampled from in-country professional databases. Both patients and physicians completed surveys about their COPD knowledge, beliefs, and perceptions; physicians answered further questions about diagnostic methods and treatment choices for COPD.

RESULTS: Most physicians (79%) responded …

Muslim Immigrant Children In The United States: Practical Suggestions For Teachers, Shamah Md-Yunus

Faculty Research and Creative Activity

Immigrant children from Muslim communities come from a variety of ethnic and cultural backgrounds, and speak 60 different languages. Some of their religious beliefs, values, and practices have created issues and challenges for Western society. This article provides basic information about Muslim and Islamic practices, issues, and challenges Muslim immigrant children face in schools and offers some suggestions for teachers on how to accommodate Muslim immigrants in the United States.

The Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (Atvm) Loan Program: Status And Issues, Bill Canis, Brent D. Yacobucci

Documents

U.S. Auto Industry Bailout

Variable Classification Of Drug-Intoxication Suicides Across Us States: A Partial Artifact Of Forensics?, Ian R H Rockett, Gerald R. Hobbs, Dan Wu, Haomiao Jia, Kurt B. Nolte, Gordon S. Smith, Sandra L. Putnam, Eric D. Caine

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

Background

The 21st-century epidemic of pharmaceutical and other drug-intoxication deaths in the United States (US) has likely precipitated an increase in misclassified, undercounted suicides. Drug-intoxication suicides are highly prone to be misclassified as accident or undetermined. Misclassification adversely impacts suicide and other injury mortality surveillance, etiologic understanding, prevention, and hence clinical and public health policy formation and practice.

Objective

To evaluate whether observed variation in the relative magnitude of drug-intoxication suicides across US states is a partial artifact of the scope and quality of toxicological testing and type of medicolegal death investigation system.

Methods

This was a national, state-based, ecological …

2015 Constitution Day Essay Contest: 2nd Place, Diana Burden

Constitution Day Essay Contest

No abstract provided.

Determinants Of Wind Energy Deployment: Infrastructures, Policies, Resources, Or Economics?, Marc Sydnor

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This dissertation analyzes the pattern of deployment of wind power across the United States, focusing on the influence of wind resources, incentives/supportive government and governance policies, supportive/confounding infrastructures, and economic factors. The effects of these factors are considered for 35 states from the year 2001 to 2012. Effects are estimated using fixed effects regression models, forward step-wise between modeling, and lead-lag models. The results indicate that demand, electrical transmission availability, and complementary generation assets, as well as the import-export of electricity are important factors in determining where wind energy deployment occurs. In addition, elevated levels of wind energy deployment are …

The Great Tactician: The Chief Justice, Obamacare, And Walking The Tightrope Of Partisan Politics, Katherine H. Blankenship

Belmont Law Review

This note argues that true judicial restraint is a fictional impossibility. Any practice of judicial restraint is at the very same moment an exercise of judicial activism because a judge cannot approach the law from a truly objective, mechanical position. Every judicial opinion is influenced not only by the political and moral vantage point of the judge, but also the judge’s policy and societal concerns. This thesis is illustrated by a case study of National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius, and, specifically, Chief Justice Roberts’s opinion regarding the individual mandate and the Medicaid provision of the Affordable Care Act. …

The Work Of The Task Force To Implement Amendment 64: A Case Study, Sam Kamin

Sturm College of Law: Faculty Scholarship

This short essay – taken from a keynote address given at the University of Denver’s Marijuana at the Crossroads Conference – describes the dynamics of marijuana law and policy in the United States with a particular eye toward the federalism implications of marijuana legalization in the states. The essay discusses the history of marijuana regulation in the United States, sets forth a number of possible scenarios going forward, and makes a few, tentative predictions about the future.

Legislating Autism Coverage: The Conservative Insurance Mandate, Lori Shealy Unumb

Belmont Law Review

Since 2007, numerous state legislatures have enacted insurance mandates relating to treatment for autism. In the absence of an autism insurance mandate, health insurers typically do not cover “one of the most commonly prescribed therapies” for autism, which is an intensive therapeutic intervention based on Applied Behavior Analysis (commonly called “ABA therapy”). The autism insurance mandates that have swept the nation during the last decade require coverage for ABA therapy and other care that is ordered by a physician and deemed medically necessary to treat autism. This article (1) examines why so many legislatures that traditionally resist insurance mandates embrace …

Restoring The Parameters Of Public Health In A Time Of Hobby Lobby And Ebola: The Case For A Wellness Account, John D. Blum

Belmont Law Review

The genesis of this piece lies in two seemingly unrelated events in law and public health, the governmental response to the Ebola crisis, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruling in Burwell v. Hobby Lobby, sparked by religious objections to certain employer mandates under the Affordable Care Act. While this essay focuses on the Burwell v. Hobby Lobby case and not Ebola, its core premise is that health policy is best served when government authorities focus strategies and responses within the parameters of individual and population concern. This piece will propose an alternative approach to women’s health promotion, a wellness account, …

Drougthscape, Winter 2015, Kelly Smith

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

Contents

Director’s report

Central U.S. 2012 report

October-December drought summary

2014 drought summary

Caribbean capacity building

Drought impacts in 2014

California timeline 2014

UC Davis ranching workshop

NASA SMAP data

Global drought info system

Community Capitals

Evaluation and assessment

Indicator-impact research

NDMC on YouTube

Until It’S Yours: Childbirth Knowledges And Embodying Cultural [Re]Production, Jessica Wopinski

Theses & ETDs

During a time of vehement debate surrounding Choice and the childbearing body, women in the United States have unprecedented health care options regarding pregnancy and birth. As critiques against the medicalization of standard hospital care are growing in visibility, increasing numbers of women are leaving the hospital for maternal care. This situation has created a divide between natural and medical birthing ideologies, which is exemplified in the Sarasota birthing community. In this thesis, I explore the manners in which women are socialized into these “camps” through childbirth education courses at the local hospital and birthing home, and discuss the political …

Where Modesty Meets Anxiety: A Cross-Cultural Study On Self-Effacing Behavior Among Americans And Filipinos, Marina Garcia

Theses & ETDs

Previous cultural research has shown that there lies a disparity in the way people of Western, individualistic cultures and the way those of Eastern, collectivistic cultures interpret socially anxious and self-effacing behaviors (e.g., being modesty or shy in a group, playing down achievements, attributing achievements to luck). The current study aims to investigate cross-cultural variations in self-reported social anxiety, as well as interpretations of self-effacing behaviors among nonclinical samples in the United States (an individualistic society) and the Philippines (a collectivistic society). Participants were recruited through the social media website of Facebook and completed an online survey via SurveyMonkey. The …

Spicy Curry And Racist Salad: Representations Of India And Indian Americans In U.S. Sitcoms, Kyna Patel

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the origins of specific stereotypes and preconceived notions of India and people of Indian descent in the United States and how they are manifested today in American sitcoms. I analyze how some Indian and Indian American characters’ identities are more strongly informed by race, ethnicity, and nationality, which can play a role in perpetuating stereotypes. By looking at story arcs, character development, jokes, and dialogues, I show how varied or homogenous the characters are in the depictions of their identities and to what extent these identities are integral to the series’ comedy.

Walk With Us On The Path Of Progress: The United States And Russia, Perceptions, Attitudes And Policy, 1867–1933, Michael Twillman

Theses & ETDs

This thesis examines the development of American perceptions and attitudes of Russia and Russians from 1867–1933 and how they came to impact policy decisions. It explores the origins of an essentialist view of Russian national character and how these ideas were adopted and adapted by American Russia “experts”, observers and policy makers. In addition, it seeks to illustrate that American views of Russia, while continually changing over time in response to different circumstances, were taken from a common fund of ideas about Russian national character. Americans wanted Russia to become a more modern and democratic society and spoke positively about …

Transforming Health Professions' Education Through In-Country Collaboration: Examining The Consortia Among African Medical Schools Catalyzed By The Medical Education Partnership Initiative., Zohray M. Talib, Elsie Kiguli-Malwadde, Hannah Wohltjen, Miliard Derbew, Yakub Mulla, David Olaleye, Nelson Sewankambo

Health Policy and Management Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND: African medical schools have historically turned to northern partners for technical assistance and resources to strengthen their education and research programmes. In 2010, this paradigm shifted when the United States Government brought forward unprecedented resources to support African medical schools. The grant, entitled the Medical Education Partnership Initiative (MEPI) triggered a number of south-south collaborations between medical schools in Africa. This paper examines the goals of these partnerships and their impact on medical education and health workforce planning.

METHODS: Semi-structured interviews were conducted with the Principal Investigators of the first four MEPI programmes that formed an in-country consortium. These …

Dr. Mary Edwards Walker: Years Ahead Of Her Time., Dre M. Irizarry, Bs, Nicole Salomone, As, Karen A. Chojnacki, Md, Charles J. Yeo, Md, Scott W. Cowan, Md, Linda J. Bogar, Md

Department of Surgery Gibbon Society Historical Profiles

Women phsycians in the United States were virtually nonexistent in the early to mid-1800s. Traditional medical schools still did not accept women, and few secretarian or eclectic medical schools were beginning to open their doors to female students. In 1849 at Geneva College, Elizabeth Blackwell became the first woman to achieve a medical degree in the United States.1 At the time of the Civil War, the few women who had managed to obtain medical degrees mainly served as nurses in the war, because society was not yet ready to accept the female physician.2 Dr. Mary Edwards Walker would help change …

An Unfinished Journey: The Evolution Of Crime Measurement In The United States, Daniel J. Patten

The Hilltop Review

This article traces the history of crime measurement in the United States beginning with the U.S. census in 1790 while exploring several key pieces of history that influenced how crime is measured today. After discussing the origins of the U.S. census and its contributions to measuring crime, the Chicago School of Sociology is observed for its monumental influence on early criminology in America. Next, the division of sociology and criminal justice into two distinct fields had major implications for measuring crime. How crime is measured is often attributed to the ideological differences between these academic fields. Then, the three primary …

What About Protection? A Content Analysis Of Reducing The Risk, An Evidence-Based Sex Education Curriculum, Julia Desangles

Theses & ETDs

In this thesis, I analyze Reducing the Risk: Building the Skills to Prevent Pregnancy, STD & HIV (RTR). As one of the first evidence-based curricula in the U.S., RTR is now one of the numerous programs funded by the U.S. government. While this curriculum has been evaluated twice for its ability to influence student sexual behavior, messages found in the inclusion of abstinence and protection has not. Using an open coding method, I delve into this curriculum and find a disconnect between the stated goal of RTR—to provide students with the skills to abstain and use protection—and the material presented. …

Who’S Following Twitter? Coverage Of The Microblogging Phenomenon By U.S. Cable News Networks, Deborah S. Chung, Mina Tsay-Vogel, Yung Soo Kim

Journalism and Media Faculty Publications

Through data captured in a digital content analysis (DCA) lab, we examine coverage of Twitter across three 24-hour U.S. cable news channels: CNN, Fox News Channel, and MSNBC. This investigation tracked Twitter coverage from its initial stage, followed by its rise to a massively used tool and its subsequent diffusion into society, evident through its plateauing coverage. News stories covering Twitter, as it penetrated into society, were more likely to use benefit/gain frames when discussing the technology, highlighting its positive social, communicative, political, and participatory impact. Benefit frames were also likely to associate Twitter with journalism. Patterns …

Anticipating Hiv Vaccines: Sketching An Agenda For Public Health Ethics And Policy In The United States, James M. Dubois, Amanda Hine, Michele Kennett, Kayla Kostelecky, Joseph Norris, Rachel Presti, Kathryn Raliski, Jessi Roach, Adam Ruggles

Saint Louis University Journal of Health Law & Policy

No abstract provided.

Legal Tools For Climate Adaptation Advocacy: Clean Water Act Permitting And Funding Programs, Channing R. Jones

Sabin Center for Climate Change Law

Climate change imperils the quality of water resources and aquatic ecosystems by introducing or exacerbating supply challenges and pollution threats. Existing legal frameworks, including permitting and grant programs, can incorporate climate change adaptation into the way we protect water. In particular, the Clean Water Act – the primary tool used nationwide to protect surface waters from pollutant discharges and fill activity – can be used to promote climate change adaptation in a number of ways.

The Clean Water Act was enacted in 1972 and amended in 1977 and 1987. The statute is principally administered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, …

Differences In Breast-Feeding Initiation And Continuation By Maternal Diabetes Status, Reena Oza-Frank, Ilana Chertok, Adam Bartley

Faculty & Staff Scholarship

To examine (i) the prevalence of and associations between breast-feeding initiation and continuation by maternal diabetes status and (ii) the reasons for not initiating and/or continuing breast-feeding by maternal diabetes status. Secondary data analyses of a population-based cross-sectional study were conducting using data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS), 2009-2011. Multivariable logistic regression was used to investigate the associations between breast-feeding initiation and continuation by diabetes status. Thirty states and New York City, USA. Mothers of recently live-born infants, selected by birth certificate sampling. Among 72755 women, 8.8 % had gestational …

Study Protocol: Identifying And Delivering Point-Of-Care Information To Improve Care Coordination, Sylvia J. Hysong, Xinxuan Che, Sallie J. Weaver, Laura A. Petersen

Psychology Faculty Publications

The need for deliberately coordinated care is noted by many national-level organizations. The Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) recently transitioned primary care clinics nationwide into Patient Aligned Care Teams (PACTs) to provide more accessible, coordinated, comprehensive, and patient-centered care. To better serve this purpose, PACTs must be able to successfully sequence and route interdependent tasks to appropriate team members while also maintaining collective situational awareness (coordination). Although conceptual frameworks of care coordination exist, few explicitly articulate core behavioral markers of coordination or the related information needs of team members attempting to synchronize complex care processes across time for a shared …

Guild-Ridden Labor Markets: The Curious Case Of Occupational Licensing, Morris M. Kleiner

Upjohn Press

In his third Upjohn Press book on occupational licensing, Morris M. Kleiner examines why the institution of occupational licensing has had such a curious evolution and influence in the United States, the European Union, and China. He also discusses the many similarities it has to guilds.

Economic Impact Of Waste In Prescribing, Dispensing, And Medication Consumption In The United States, Sarah Almanie

Theses and Dissertations

Abstract

ECONOMIC IMPACT OF WASTE IN PRESCRIBING, DISPENSING, AND MEDICATION CONSUMPTION IN THE UNITED STATES

By Sarah A. Almanie, M.S.

A thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science at Virginia Commonwealth University.

Virginia Commonwealth University, 2015.

Major Director: David A. Holdford, R.Ph., M.S., Ph.D., FAPhA

Professor

Department of Pharmacotherapy and Outcomes Science

OBJECTIVES: This research examines waste associated with the medication use process which consists of unfilled prescriptions, abandoned prescriptions, or unused prescription medications. The aim of this study is to quantify the direct medical costs of medication waste in delivery of …

Effects Of Economic Recession On Primary Care Access For The Homeless, Brandi M. White

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Primary care access (PCA) for the homeless can prove challenging, especially during periods of economic distress. In the United States, the most recent recession may have presented additional barriers to accessing care. Limited safety-net resources traditionally utilized by the homeless may have also been used by the non-homeless resulting in delays in seeking treatment for the homeless. Using hospitalizations for ambulatory care sensitivity (ACS) conditions as a proxy measure for access, this study investigated the recession's impact on PCA for the homeless and non-homeless in four states. The State Inpatient Databases were used to identify ACS admissions. Findings from this …

Coming In From The Cold: Recommendations For United States Arctic Policy, Aseem Chipalkatti

CMC Senior Theses

The purpose of this policy report is to elucidate the current Arctic strategies and capabilities of the major Arctic nations – Canada, Denmark, Norway, Russia, and the United States – with the aim of identifying American shortcomings in the region and potential policy suggestions to correct these failings. The report first illuminates the potential for resource gain in the Arctic, specifically with respect to oil and natural gas and the potential for commercial growth represented by new Arctic shipping routes. The report also discusses the difficulties associated with reaping the rewards of the Arctic, specifically the lack of maritime infrastructure, …

The Voting Rights In Winter: The Death Of A Superstatute, Guy-Uriel Charles, Luis Fuentes-Rohwer

Faculty Scholarship

The Voting Rights Act (“VRA”), the most successful civil rights statute in American history, is dying. In the recent Shelby County decision, the U.S. Supreme Court signaled that the anti-discrimination model, long understood as the basis for the VRA as originally enacted, is no longer the best way to understand today’s voting rights questions. As a result, voting rights activists need to face up to the fact that voting rights law and policy are at a critical moment of transition. It is likely the case that the superstatute we once knew as the VRA is no more and is never …

Concordance Of Self-Report And Measured Height And Weight Of College Students, Virginia Quick, Carol Byrd-Bredbenner, Suzanne Shoff, Adrienne A. White, Barbara Lohse, Tanya Horacek, Kendra Kattelmann, Beatrice Phillips, Sharon L Hoerr, Geoffrey Greene

Health and Nutritional Sciences Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE: This study examined associations between college students' self-report and measured height and weight.

METHODS: Participants (N = 1,686) were 77% white, 62% female, aged 18-24 years (mean ± SD, 19.1 ± 1.1 years), and enrolled at 8 US universities. Body mass index (BMI) was calculated for self-report (via online survey); trained researchers measured height and weight and categorized them as normal (18.5 to < 25), overweight (25 to < 30), obese (30 to < 35), and morbidly obese (≥ 35).

RESULTS: Concordance of self-report vs objectively measured BMI groups using chi-square revealed that 93% were accurate, 4% were underestimated, and 2.7% were overestimated. Pearson correlations and adjusted linear regression revealed significant associations between self-report and measured …