Digital Commons Network^™

Food Environments And Mental Health: Analyzing The Impact Of Fast-Food Availability On U.S. Adults (2011-2016), Nicole Tenner

NYMC Student Theses and Dissertations

This study investigates the relationship between the availability of fast food in US territories and mental health outcomes. Utilizing a cross-sectional design, the study examines data from the 2011 and 2016 Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) from the CDC, along with data from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food Environment Atlas. The analysis included a nationally representative sample of 351,823 participants across all 50 US states. Multiple regression models examined the association between fast food availability and two primary mental health outcomes: the number of self-reported poor mental health days and the likelihood of being diagnosed with a depressive …

The Rhetoric Of Responsibilization: A Rhetorical Analysis Of Pre-Exposure Prophylaxis Campaigns For Hiv Prevention, Catherine M. Pabalate

Kentucky Undergraduate Journal for the Health Humanities

Responsibilization refers to the process by which patients are made accountable for their health and wellbeing, which is determined by their habits and behaviors. Though responsibilization affords greater agency to patients, it can also result in anxiety and guilt when the patient appears "deviant" or "noncompliant." Because sexual behavior is attributed to the causality of HIV/AIDS, patients’ sexual patterns and choices are included within their medical decision-making. This rhetorical analysis focuses on pharmaceutical campaigns and commercials for pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP), which were released between 2012 and 2024 and are targeted towards patients at-risk for HIV/AIDS. Findings suggest that specific rhetorical …

Can Social And Emotional Lessons Improve Student Behavior In A First Grade Classroom? A Program Evaluation, Tara Freeman Mozee

Theses and Dissertations

This program evaluation discusses how using a social and emotional (SEL) curriculum taught first-grade students how to manage and regulate their behavior in a first-grade classroom. The purpose of this program evaluation was to evaluate if the SEL curriculum helped first-grade students manage and regulate their behavior in the classroom so the teacher would create fewer behavior management plans and spend more time on classroom instruction. The methodology used in this program evaluation was a logic model. This model presented the inputs, activities, outputs, and outcomes of the program evaluation. The implications of this program evaluation are based on the …

Influence Of Filler Content And Polishing On Candida And Streptococci Biofilm Formation In Resin-Based Composites: An In Vitro Evaluation, Zahra Zareshahrabadi, Sarina Sahmeddini, Marzieh Meimandinezhad, Afsoon Tondari, Kamiar Zomorodian

Pacific Faculty Work

Aim: The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact of filler content and polishing of resin-based composites on in vitro biofilm formation of Candida and Streptococci species. Materials and Methods: Specimens of four commercially available resin-based composites including Z100, P60, Z250, and Z350, with different filler amounts and volumes, were prepared according to the manufacturer’s instructions. Each group was divided into polished and unpolished specimens, which were then placed in a 24-well tissue culture plate with microbial suspension and incubated. The XTT technique was used to evaluate biofilm formation. Results: Z250 resin-based composites, which had the highest percentage …

Determining Accurate Pore Structures Of Polypropylene Membrane For Ecmo Using Fe-Sem Under Optimized Conditions, Makoto Fukuda, Yoshiaki Nishite, Eri Murata, Koki Namekawa, Tomohiro Mori, Tsutomu Tanaka, Kiyotaka Sakai

Children’s Nutrition Research Center Staff Publications

Long-term ECMOs are expected to be put into practical use in order to prepare for the next emerging severe infectious diseases after the novel coronavirus pandemic in 2019-2023. While polypropylene (PP) and polymethylpentene (PMP) are currently the mainstream materials for the hollow fiber membranes of ECMO, the PP membrane coated with a silicone layer on the outer surface has also been commercialized. In this study, we sought a method to accurately observe the detailed pore morphologies of the PP membrane by suppressing irreversible changes in the morphology in SEM observation, which is a general-purpose observation with higher resolution. As a …

Study Of The Effectiveness Of A Home-Based Pulmonary Therapy Program In Ecuadorian Older Adults With Prolonged Exposure To Biomass Smoke Based On Plithogenic Similarity Measure, Lisbeth Josefina Reales Chacón, Javier Patricio Heredia Jiménez, Lizbeth Geovanna Silva Guayasamín, Christian Andrés Silva Sarabia, María José López Pino, Javier Caiza Lema, Josselyn Gabriela Bonilla-Ayala

Neutrosophic Sets and Systems

Biomass is a form of energy used primarily by people living in rural areas of developing countries. This type of energy is based on the combustion of elements such as wood. Exposure to biomass is linked to diseases such as Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease (COPD), which is a major cause of global mortality. In this paper, we study a group of patients of 65 and over years of age exposed to biomass smoke for long periods in the Ecuadorian province of Cotopaxi. Specifically, we study the effectiveness of a home-based pulmonary rehabilitation program. Since there are different variables to measure, …

Evaluating Impacts Of Improved Flooring On Enteric And Parasitic Infections In Rural Households In Kenya: Study Protocol For A Cluster-Randomised Controlled Trial, Katherine E. Halliday, Stella Kepha, Hugo Legge, Elizabeth Allen, Robert Dreibelbis, Lynne Elson, Beatrice K. Kakoi, Carlos Mcharo, Sharon Muli, Jacinta Mwongeli, Doris Njomo, Margaret M. Njoroge, Victoria Ochwal, William E. Oswald, Martin Rono, Tuva K. Safari, Ulrike Filinger, James Wambua Kaluli, Charles S. Mwandawiro, Rachel L. Pullan

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Introduction Earthen floors are often damp or dusty and difficult to clean, providing an ideal environment for faecal pathogens and parasites. Observational studies have revealed associations between household flooring and health outcomes, but robust experimental evidence is scant. This study will evaluate the impact of an improved household flooring intervention on enteric infections, soil-transmitted helminth (STH) infections and tungiasis through implementation of a cluster-randomised trial in two rural settings in Kwale and Bungoma Counties, Kenya. Methods and analyses 440 clusters (households) across both sites are allocated to control or intervention group, in which a low-cost, sealed, washable, cement-based floor is …

Building A Theory-Based Understanding Of Sexual Health Provider Stigma: A Phenomenological Study, Harit Agroia, Rebecca Reno, Maytal Bach, Jenette Spezeski, Erin Starzyk

Journal of Social, Behavioral, and Health Sciences

Unraveling provider-level sexual health stigma requires building an understanding of contributing factors, such as provider knowledge, values, beliefs, medical training, and other intrapersonal or interpersonal factors that may influence its manifestation at the clinic level during patient–provider interactions. Healthcare provider stigma has not been sufficiently understood or explained using classic psychological theories, such as Cognitive Dissonance Theory (CDT) or Social Cognitive Theory (SCT). We build a theory-based understanding of sexual health-provider stigma by proposing modifications to the SCT to develop the Modified SCT (M-SCT) model, where cognitive dissonance is hypothesized to influence the personal/cognitive and behavioral factors of the M-SCT. …

Forecasting Influenza Rates Using Machine Learning: A Study Of Chatgpt's Predictive Accuracy, Sara Saleh

University Honors Theses

This study evaluates ChatGPT's ability to forecast influenza rates, such as the number of flu cases, hospitalizations, and death during peak season periods using CDC data, and comparing forecasts against actual results to calculate statistical accuracy and consistency. Influenza forecasting is essential for public health planning, but traditional methods may not always provide timely or accurate predictions. In this research study, ChatGPT was utilized to predict the influenza rates for the following week based on the previous week's data obtained from the FluView surveillance system. The predicted rates were compared to the actual influenza rates to assess the model's overall …

Review Of Bronchiectasis Among Aboriginal And Torres Strait Islander Children And Young People (0-18 Years Old), André Schultz, Anne Chang

Journal of the Australian Indigenous HealthInfoNet

Bronchiectasis is a chronic lung disease that often commences during childhood. The disease is often under-recognised but can have a significant lifelong impact and shorten survival. This review discussed bronchiectasis in the context of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander children and young people. The review includes section on disease prevalence, risk- and protective factors, prevention diagnosis and treatment, the role of the health system, government initiatives and future directions.

Vaccination Mandates And Civil Liberties, Sophia Choti

Florida Atlantic University Undergraduate Law Journal

Vaccination mandates in the United States sit at the crossroads of public health and individual freedoms, a complex and often controversial intersection. The enforcement of immunization policies has a long history of legal and ethical scrutiny, balancing the state's responsibility to protect its citizens with the constitutional rights individuals hold dear. The COVID-19 pandemic reignited this debate, amplifying existing tensions and presenting new challenges. This analysis argues that while vaccination mandates are constitutionally valid and essential for safeguarding public health, they must be designed with care to respect individual liberties and address modern challenges such as misinformation, inequities, and public …

Development Of Recommendations For The Future Of Telehealth Use Among Sexual And Gender Minorities (Sgm), Jeffrey A. Wilhite

Dissertations and Theses

It is now well-documented that sexual and gender minoritized individuals (SGMs) face consistent stigmatization from not just the health care system, but also from overarching community, federal, and societal entities. Subsections of the SGM community, like gay men for example, face higher rates of eating disorders, certain cancers, alcoholism, mental illness and even obesity, when compared to heterosexual counterparts. Many of these challenges could be exacerbated by current political administration efforts to silence the community. Ensuring access to clinical care is one way of preserving the health and livelihood of the community. Telehealth, or synchronous, remote based clinical care, can …

Jesus: The Multispecialty Health Care Provider, Rachel A. Joseph

Wisdom & Compassion: The LUSON Journal

No abstract provided.

Volume 2, Issue 2 - Complete Issue

Wisdom & Compassion: The LUSON Journal

No abstract provided.

Decade Celebrations 1994 - First National Symposium On "Health Care & Scientific Development”

University press releases and calendars

No abstract provided.

Evaluating The Profile Of Most Bacterial Species Isolated From Samples Containing Β-Lactamase Gene, Mohammed Farah Mohammed Abdelhameed, Ahmed Eltigani Almansoori, Mohamed T. Ibrahim, Fatma Al Otaibi, Louai Ahmed, R. H. Zayed

Journal of Agricultural and Marine Sciences

The primary cause of antibiotic use in dairy herds is mastitis, which requires microbiological identification for successful treatment and raises concerns due to increased antimicrobial resistance. This study aimed to highlight the profile of most bacterial species isolated from samples containing the β-lactamase gene from a dairy farm located in Dubai Emirate, UAE. We aseptically obtained a total of 83 milk samples from the herd of 9,000 Holstein milking cows that had clinically confirmed mastitis in March and April 2019. The real-time PCR and DNA extraction were done using the King Fisher™ Duo Prime Purification System, the Mag MAX™ CORE …

Epidemiological Investigation Of Viral, Bacterial And Parasitic Etiology Of Calf Diarrhea In Türkiye, Yasemi̇n Erdoğan, Edi̇z Kağan Özgen, Seyda Cengi̇z, Murat Özmen, Eli̇f Karadeni̇z Pütür, Nebahat Polat, Ci̇han Öz, Ercan Atalay, Ersan Pütür, Meryem Güloğlu, Ece Kaplan

Turkish Journal of Veterinary & Animal Sciences

In cattle breeding, neonatal calf diarrhea is considered the most significant health problem, causing 50% of total calf deaths. The presented study aimed to identify etiological agents in diarrheic calves in 9 provinces of the Eastern Anatolia Region, where the most intensive cattle breeding is conducted in Türkiye, using real-time PCR. Stool samples were taken from a total of 500 calves with neonatal calf diarrhea. In the samples taken, the agents bovine coronavirus, bovine rotavirus, Escherichia coli K99, Salmonella spp., Cryptosporidium spp., bovine torovirus, and bovine norovirus were analyzed using real-time PCR, while C. perfringens alpha toxin, and Eimeria bovis/Eimeria …

Pesticides As Multiple Stressors To Bivalves And Echinoderms, Alexandra Gabrielle Tissot

Dissertations and Theses

Pesticides are ubiquitous in aquatic environments, alongside numerous contaminants and other stressors that can result in combined exposure to target and non-target organisms. Nevertheless, traditional toxicity studies quantify the effects of these compounds at an individual level, and to a narrow range of traditional test organisms. Through this dissertation, I explored the presence and effects of commonly detected pesticides of concern in the Pacific Northwest in order to realistically quantify potential effects from combined stressors. In Chapter 2, I demonstrated my background knowledge on these select pesticides (atrazine, bifenthrin, diuron, indaziflam, and imidacloprid), including their chemical and physical properties. Using …

Building Models, Building Capacity: A Review Of Participatory Machine Learning For Hiv Prevention, Mark Sendak, Meg Young, Jee Young Kim, Alifia Hasan, Clare Kelsey, Catherine O’Neal, Tonya Jagneaux, Wayne Wilbright, John Couk, Stephen Lim, Tamachia Davenport, Shirley Lolis, Jennifer Thomas, Shannon Widman, Suresh Balu, Meredith Clement, Lance Okeke

School of Medicine Faculty Publications

A growing number of researchers and practitioners are embracing a “participatory turn” in machine learning (ML) to improve model development, prevent harm, and provide communities more influence over systems that impact them. In this paper, we explore the intersection of participatory practices in healthcare and the emerging focus on responsible AI with a focus on human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) care. We review the historical context of participation in HIV treatment and prevention, emphasizing how patient activism has shaped practices in this field. We then review participatory ML in HIV prevention and present a brief case study of a project designed …

Telehealth And In-Person Hiv Care During The Covid-19 Pandemic At A Large Academic Medical Center In North Carolina, Valerie Yelverton, Jan Ostermann Ph.D., Michael E. Yarrington, Andrew K. Weinhold, Nabil Natafgi, Bankole Olatosi, Sharon Weissman, Nathan M. Thielman

Faculty Publications

Background

To maintain HIV care during the COVID-19 pandemic, many HIV clinics across the United States adopted telehealth. However, not everyone participated in telehealth equally. This study assessed the use and disparities in telehealth and in-person HIV care at a large academic medical center in North Carolina (NC) relative to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Methods

Data from the Duke University Infectious Disease clinic in NC were extracted from electronic health records (EHR), aggregated across persons with HIV (PWH) by calendar month, visit type (in-person vs. telehealth HIV care), and by key sociodemographic and clinical characteristics. Variation in HIV care over time …

Importance Of Outbreak Response Research In Bridging Knowledge Gaps On Emerging Infectious Diseases, Robert F Breiman, David Wang, Michael Diamond, Adrianus C M Boon, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

An important outcome of the devastating 2014 West African Ebola virus disease outbreak and the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic has been the growing promotion of conducting research during outbreaks of emerging infectious diseases (EIDs) as a valuable and acceptable process of acquiring knowledge to enhance our ability to better prevent and control these diseases in the future. Recognising the unique opportunity during outbreaks to leverage increases in cases over a short time interval and in a circumscribed area, we articulate a systematic process of conducting EID outbreak response research, highlighting knowledge gaps that should be prioritised, and measures that can be …

Covid-19 & Healthcare (Re)Privatization? A Comparative Analysis Of High And Medium Per Capita Gdp Countries, Kristina Donders, Kaitlyn Matthews, Brittany Reyes, Frank. H. Rizzo

Working Papers Series

This paper examines whether the COVID-19 pandemic accelerated healthcare privatization in high- and medium-GDP countries. Drawing on political economy theories of path dependence and privatization, we analyze changes in public and private healthcare expenditures in eight countries: Canada, Chile, Denmark, Georgia, Luxembourg, Norway, the Philippines, and South Korea—comparing data from 2019 and 2022. Using World Bank indicators on healthcare financing, GDP, aging populations, and food insecurity, we find that although healthcare expenditures generally increased during the pandemic, this increase was primarily in public, not private, spending. Case studies of Georgia and South Korea reveal that local economic and demographic pressures, …

Organizational Factors That Impact Emergency Room Sepsis Bundle Compliance In U.S. Hospitals, Jason Lee Kimbrell

All ETDs from UAB

ORGANIZATIONAL FACTORS THAT IMPACT EMERGENCY ROOM SEPSIS BUNDLE COMPLIANCE IN U.S. HOSPITALS JASON L. KIMBRELL HEALTH SERVICES ADMINISTRATION ABSTRACT This in-depth study examines the organizational factors within U.S. hospital emergency rooms (ERs) that impact care teams’ adherence to established, time-sensitive sepsis protocols. The regression analysis revealed a concerning trend: for each 1% increase in annual patient walk-out rates, compliance with sepsis protocols declines by 2.10%. Additionally, the impact on poor ER throughput where the ESI level 3 length of stay increases by 1 minute, a hospital's compliance with the 3hr POA sepsis bundle decreases by .08%. These findings underscore the …

Current Issues In Oral Health: Introduction To The Special Issue, Nejat Düzgüneş

Pacific Faculty Work

No abstract provided.

Creation Of An Open Access Textbook, Sue Ann Gardner

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

Slide presented during the PRCA Research Celebration, June 3, 2025, in the University Libraries, University of Nebraska-Lincoln titled Creation of an Open Access Textbook, about the development and publication of Concepts in Animal Parasitology, co-edited by Scott L. Gardner and Sue Ann Gardner and published by Zea Books (Lincoln, Nebraska, USA) in 2024.

A Review Of The Persistent Burden Of Post-Covid Headaches In Children, Hajir Karim Abdul-Husseein

Hilla University College Journal For Medical Science

This review focuses on the problem of the headache occurrence in children after COVID. Studies indicated that headaches and fatigue are common long-term symptoms in school-age children following COVID-19 infection. The prevalence of persistent post-COVID headaches in children varies between 5% and 25.4%, often lasting for at least 3 months. Exploration of potential pathophysiological mechanisms of post-COVID headaches in children includes the trigemino-vascular system, viral-induced inflammation, immune system dysregulation, and compromised cerebral blood flow. Age-related immune responses and the expression of receptors like ACE2 may also play a role in pediatric headache development. The features of post-COVID headaches in children …

Phage-Induced Protection Against Lethal Bacterial Reinfection, Yikun Xing, Haroldo J Hernandez Santos, Ling Qiu, Samantha R Ritter, Jacob J Zulk, Rachel Lahowetz, Kathryn A Patras, Austen L Terwilliger, Anthony W Maresso

Faculty, Staff and Students Publications

Bacteriophages, or phages, are viruses that target and infect bacteria. Due to a worldwide rise in antimicrobial resistance (AMR), phages have been proposed as a promising alternative to antibiotics for the treatment of resistant bacterial infections. Up to this point in history, phage use in preclinical animal studies, clinical trials, and emergency-use compassionate care cases has centered around the original observation from 1915 showing phage as lytic agent, and thus a treatment that kills bacteria. Here, we describe an activity associated with phage therapy that extends beyond lytic activity that results in long-term protection against reinfection. This activity is potent, …

Contributor Biographies, Editors Of Suurj

SUURJ: Seattle University Undergraduate Research Journal

No abstract provided.

Early Versus Late Vasopressor Initiation In Septic Shock – Elviss Study, Nathan Crawford, Brittanii Prahl, Jordan Amaro, Barbara Branneman, Jack Huber

2025 Swedish FISH (Fostering Interdisciplinary Solutions in Healthcare) Conference

No abstract provided.

Once-Daily Versus Twice-Daily Oral Vancomycin For Secondary Prevention Of Clostridioides Difficile Infection In Patients Treated With Systemic Antibiotics, Catherine Palmer

2025 Swedish FISH (Fostering Interdisciplinary Solutions in Healthcare) Conference

No abstract provided.