Digital Commons Network^™

Update On The Use Of Transcranial Electrical Brain Stimulation To Manage Acute And Chronic Covid-19 Symptoms, Giuseppina Pilloni, Marom Bikson, Bashar W. Badran, Mark S. George, Steven A. Kautz, Alexandre Hideki Okano, Abrahão Fontes Baptista, Leigh E. Charvet

Publications and Research

The coronavirus disease 19 (COVID-19) pandemic has resulted in the urgent need to develop and deploy treatment approaches that can minimize mortality and morbidity. As infection, resulting illness, and the often prolonged recovery period continue to be characterized, therapeutic roles for transcranial electrical stimulation (tES) have emerged as promising non-pharmacological interventions. tES techniques have established therapeutic potential for managing a range of conditions relevant to COVID-19 illness and recovery, and may further be relevant for the general management of increased mental health problems during this time. Furthermore, these tES techniques can be inexpensive, portable, and allow for trained self-administration. Here, …

My Life In The Arts: Challenges Of A Non-Conformist Professional Path, Mark L. Matthews

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

There exists a cognitive dissonance between the current state of educational delivery systems and the preparatory needs of the non-traditional student who desires a professional life outside of the cultural norm. The aspiring professional painter, musician, poet, actor, novelist, photographer, or dancer all fall into an educational category that is not properly served by current pedagogical design at all levels. In order to address this problem of practice we must first identify common themes present in a non-conformist, entrepreneurial life progression though the formative years. To that end I will begin with a presentation of my own story, which encompasses …

Social-Emotional Learning In High School: A Mixed-Methods Evaluation Of The Strong Teens Program, Oscar Olaya

Theses and Dissertations

Strong Teens is a curriculum designed to help students develop the social-emotional skills needed to manage challenges and become successful socially and academically (Carrizales- Engelmann et al., 2016). Strong Teens has shown promise among adolescents, but this was the first study to evaluate the newly updated version of the intervention in a high school setting. The curriculum was implemented by a special education teacher with students at-risk for emotional and behavioral disorders. A mixed method design was used to evaluate outcomes with 16 ninth grade students. Overall findings suggest that Strong Teens was effective at improving students' social emotional knowledge …

On Making Experimental Design Choices: Discussions On The Use And Challenges Of Demand Effects, Incentives, Deception, Samples, And Vignettes, Stephanie Eckerd, Scott Duhadway, Elliot Bendoly, Craig R. Carter, Lutz Kaufmann

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

In late 2018, the Journal of Operations Management published an invited methods article by Lonati et al. (2018) to provide guidance to authors on how to design behavioral experiments to achieve the rigor required for consideration in the journal. That article was written as a response to a number of behavioral research submissions to JOM, each dealing with interesting topics but viewed by the editors to possess poor design choices at inception. While the Lonati et al. (2018) piece provides experimental guidance fitting to certain research agendas, questions have arisen concerning whether and how exactly to implement some of the …

Aerobic Exercise With Superimposed Virtual Reality Improves Cognitive Flexibility And Selective Attention In Young Males, Borja Sañudo, Ellie Abdi, Mario Bernardo-Filho, Redha Taiar

Department of Teaching and Learning Scholarship and Creative Works

The literature to date is limited regarding the implantation of VR in healthy young individuals with a focus on cognitive function. Thirty healthy males aged between 22.8 and 24.3 years volunteered to participate in the study randomly and were assigned to one of two groups with alike exercises: an experimental group (GE, n = 15) that performed an exercise protocol with a VR game and a controlled group that performed the exercise protocol without the VR (CON, n = 15). A 128-card computerized version of the Wisconsin Card Sorting Task (WCST) and the Stroop test were completed before and after …

Health Monitoring Using Deep Learning Of Acoustic And Speech Signals, Eric E. Hamke

Electrical and Computer Engineering ETDs

The focus of the research is to identify stress markers in a firefighter's speech. These markers include changes in breathing patterns and changes in the fundamental frequency of an individual’s voice. The breathing patterns are characterized using the number of breaths taken in a minute and the time spent inhaling. These measures are estimated using a Restricted Boltzmann Machine to process a firefighters’ SCBA regulator sounds, as open and closed. The classifications are then combined into continuous intervals. Observing the length of the intervals and the number of interval-starts represents time spent inhaling and the breathing rates (breaths per minute). …

Blockchain Based Communication Architectures With Applications To Private Security Networks, Ashley N. Mayle

Computer Science ETDs

Existing communication protocols in security networks are highly centralized. While this naively makes the controls easier to physically secure, external actors require fewer resources to disrupt the system because there are fewer points in the system can be interrupted without the entire system failing. We present a solution to this problem using a proof-of-work-based blockchain implementation built on MultiChain. We construct a test-bed network containing visual imagers and microwave sensor information. These data types are ubiquitous in perimeter security systems and allow a realistic representation of a real-world network architecture. The cameras in this system use an object detection algorithm …

Methods Of A Narrative Inquirist: Storying The Endured Teacher Identity, Taylor Norman

The Qualitative Report

While I was a young English language arts teacher, my teacher identity matured in a nurturing environment cultivated by my veteran colleagues. Finding that this is not the common narrative told by beginning teachers (Alsup, 2019, 2006; Danielewicz, 2001), I wondered what impact sharing the stories of my veteran colleagues could have on young teachers. The purpose of this paper is to explain why narrative inquiry fit the parameters of this particular inquiry, what methods were utilized and how the project was constructed. Like Spector-Mersel (2011), I intend to describe my use of narrative inquiry to expand its conceptual and …

Barriers And Enablers In Implementing Electronic Consultations In Primary Care: Scoping Review, Rebecca Baines, John Tredinnick-Rowe, Ray Jones, Arunangsu Chatterjee

Peninsula Medical School

Background Often promoted as a way to address increasing demands, improve patient accessibility, and improve overall efficiency, electronic consultations are becoming increasingly common in primary care, particularly in light of the current COVID-19 pandemic. However, despite their increasing use, a theoretically informed understanding of the factors that support and inhibit their effective implementation is severely limited. Objective With this scoping review, we sought to identify the factors that support and inhibit the implementation of electronic consultations in primary care. Methods In total, 5 electronic databases (PubMed, Medline, Embase, CINAHL, and PsycINFO) were systematically searched for studies published in 2009-2019 that …

Comparing Endocrown Restorations On Permanent Molars And Premolars: A Systematic Review And Meta-Analysis, Rm Thomas, A Kelly, N Tagiyeva, S Kanagasingam

Peninsula Medical School

Objectives The objective of this systematic review was to evaluate the success of endocrown restorations on molars in comparison with endocrown restorations on premolars.Registration number The methodology for this review is registered with the PROSPERO database (CRD42019149543).Data sources Medline, Embase, Dentistry & Oral Sciences Source and Cochrane CENTRAL were searched through January 2020, supplemented with hand searching of additional relevant journals.Data selection and data extraction Two independent reviewers screened studies against predefined inclusion criteria and extracted data.Data analysis Narrative analysis was carried out and random-effects meta-analysis was performed where possible.Results Out of the selected eight studies, reported success rate of …

The Experience Of Being Gender Nonbinary: An Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis, Gene Crofts

Individual, Family, and Community Education ETDs

The call for research on the growing population of persons who identify as gender nonbinary includes the need for in-depth explorations of lived experience, especially among Persons of Color. This study focuses on four individuals, 27 to 32 years of age, who identify as gender nonbinary as well as Hispanic/Latinx and reside in the unique minority-majority, conservative/progressive state of New Mexico. Interpretative phenomenological analysis, with its idiographic approach, was used to gather data through interviews and present the findings in both descriptive and interpreted terms. Results focus on three themes: realization required a unique journey, allowances are made for mothers …

Parental Perspectives Of Their Involvement In Special Education Among English-Speaking Culturally And Linguistically Diverse Families, Yi-Ling Lin

Special Education ETDs

This study aimed to examine (1) levels of parental involvement among parents from different ethnic groups, and (2) factors predicting parental involvement in their children’s special education. A total of 112 parents from culturally and linguistically diverse backgrounds participated in the study. A survey study was conducted to investigate how marital status, parental education levels, income, perception about school climate, their belief of roles in parental involvement, and parental perception of self-efficacy for helping the child succeed in school impacted the level of parental involvement in their children’s home-based and school-based activities. The survey was sent out to the center …

A Systems Thinking Framework To Improve Care Of The Terminally Ill: An Australian Case Study, Elizabeth Summerfield

Patient Experience Journal

This paper argues the value of systems thinking to patients, family members and medical practitioners in end-of-life care, particularly as a mechanism for considering when palliative care should be introduced as preferred treatment. It applies a well-established set of tenets in systems thinking retrospectively to a case study of patient care in Australia. This highlights how and where different decisions might have been made, based on a holistic consideration of the patient’s best interests. The case is written from the perspective of a family caregiver. It argues that early, deliberate conversation, framed by systems thinking tenets, can support the call …

Factors Associated With Patient Rating Of Physician Communication Effectiveness And Satisfaction In Musculoskeletal Care, Amirreza Fatehi, Amanda Gonzalez Md, David Bandell, Joost Kortlever, Léon Rijk, David Ring

Patient Experience Journal

Effective communication is associated with adherence to healthy habits. This study sought factors associated with communication effectiveness and satisfaction with musculoskeletal specialty care in order to inform efforts to improve communication effectiveness using measurement, feedback, and coaching. After a new or return upper extremity specialist visit, 146 adult patients completed a survey recording demographics, measures of catastrophic thinking in response to nociception, symptoms of depression, and symptoms of anxiety, and they rated communication effectiveness (5 questions answered on a 4-point Likert scale) and satisfaction with the visit (slider with anchors of 0 and 100). Patients also provided text answers to …

Does An Empathic Pre-Visit Conversation With Another Team Member Improve Perceived Surgeon Empathy?, Lindy Derkzen, Janna S E Ottenhoff, Carrie Barron, David Ring

Patient Experience Journal

Orthopedic surgeon specialists can help alleviate symptoms and reduce self-reported activity limitations by addressing stress, distress, and unhelpful cognitive biases regarding pain (e.g., “hurt equals harm”). But noticing mental and social health opportunities in specialty care can harm the patient-surgeon relationship. This study evaluated the ability of an empathic pre-visit conversation by another team member to improve the patient-surgeon relationship measured as perceived empathy. Factors associated with pain intensity, magnitude of self-reported activity limitations, symptoms of depression, and satisfaction with the surgeon were also studied. We enrolled 100 patients visiting an orthopedic surgeon for the first time. Prior to the …

Addressing Social Disconnection Among Frequent Users Of Community Hospital Emergency Departments: A Statewide Implementation Evaluation, A. Rani Elwy, Elisa Koppelman, Victoria Parker, Chris Louis

Patient Experience Journal

We conducted a qualitative exploration and implementation evaluation of a Massachusetts policy initiative, the Community Hospital Acceleration, Revitalization, and Transformation (CHART) investment program, to examine how CHART innovations aimed at reducing unnecessary emergency department (ED) visits also addressed patients’ social disconnection problems according to a social connection framework (structural, functional, quality or multilevel). We performed interviews with 236 stakeholders (hospital managers, CHART providers, staff, and community partners) one-year post CHART implementation. Interviews were analyzed using a directed content analysis approach. Data were then mapped to levels of the social connection framework. Our results support that social disconnection, described as “loneliness” …

Patients’ Experience In Hong Kong Hospitals: A Comparison Between South Asian And Chinese People, Nimisha Vandan, Janet Yuen-Ha Wong Dr., Paul Siu-Fai Yip Chair Professor, Daniel Yee-Tak Fong Dr.

Patient Experience Journal

Patient experience in hospital is positively associated with both self-rated and objectively measured health outcomes. In many countries ethnic minority patients have more negative experience and bear a disproportionate burden of disease than their majority counterparts. However, hospital experience of ethnic minority patients in Asia is still unexplored. We aimed to explore the hospital experience of South Asian ethnic minority and compare that with local Chinese patients’ experience in Hong Kong. A cross-sectional study sample comprised of 783 participants (388 South Asian and 395 Chinese). Picker Patient Experience-15 (PPE-15) questionnaire was used for data collection. Simple and multiple regressions were …

Patient Engagement In Action: Timing And Intensity Of Strategies Used To Engage Low Income Depressed Mothers Of Infants And Toddlers, Maureen J. Baker, Beth Perry Black, Linda S. Beeber

Patient Experience Journal

The purpose of this study was to illuminate the process of patient engagement and to determine how components of patient engagement were operationalized in the nurse-patient interpersonal relationship with low income, depressed mothers, a traditionally underserved population. Using a descriptive quantitative design, we examined how components of patient engagement were executed across three phases of the nurse-patient interpersonal relationship. We assessed for differences in engagement strategies used in different phases of the interpersonal relationship and with mothers with varying levels of engagement. Through this study, we observed that patient engagement has several dynamic components varying in intensity and frequency, depending …

Patient Participation Strategies: The Nursing Bedside Handover, Irene Decelie

Patient Experience Journal

Patient participation is an important goal in today’s health care and considered necessary to achieve safe and quality patient care. The purpose of this paper is to discuss the historical and theoretical background surrounding the concept of patient participation in health care and specifically to examine patient participation strategies which have been reported to be of influence when employed during the nurse to nurse and patient to nurse activities encompassed in the bedside handover. The bedside handover is the nursing activity of transferring primary nursing responsibility of care from one nurse to another. Encouraging patients to participate during this process …

How Information Sharing Can Improve Patient And Family Experience In Critical Care: A Focus Group Study, Jayne Garner, Sioban Kelly, Girendra Sadera, Victoria Treadway

Patient Experience Journal

The experience of being in hospital critical care has major impacts upon the patient, their family and carers. This situation is likely to be stressful, fast changing and challenging for those involved. Crucial to this encounter are factors relating to information sharing between the clinical team, the patient, family and carers. Focus groups at a UK hospital site with former patients, their families and carers provides insight into their journey and the factors that influence this. Issues that emerged included the format of information, how and who delivered this, communication transition out of critical care and leaving hospital. While participants …

Living With Cardiovascular Disease (Cvd): Exploring The Biggest Challenges For People Affected By Cvd In The Uk, And Their Use (Or Not) Of Online Resources, Sarah-Ann Burger, Alan J. Poots, Anna Perris, Helen Crump, Helen Thorne, Sally Hughes, Jacob West

Patient Experience Journal

As death rates decrease, people affected by cardiovascular disease (CVD) continue to live with these diseases and the associated challenges, long-term. We aimed to identify the biggest challenges for people affected by CVD in the UK and explore the sources of support and information used to help manage conditions, to inform future service provision. An online questionnaire was sent and advertised to people over 16 years old in the UK self-identifying as affected by CVD (living with CVD, had risk factors, or a carer). There were 13,885 responses. The top five challenges were: feeling down, sad, or depressed; making changes …

Exploring Peer Mentoring In Pediatric Transition: Perspectives Of Different Stakeholders About Accompanying Patients In Gastroenterology, Guillaume Dumais-Lévesque, Marie-Pascale Pomey

Patient Experience Journal

The literature identifies several issues in the pediatric transition, such as the lack of coordination between pediatric and adult settings and young patients who are not exercising independence in the self-management of their disease. The objective of this study is to explore the potential for a pediatric transition program in gastroenterology, introducing an accompanying patient program to support the transition. A qualitative case study was conducted, including semi-structured focus groups and individual interviews with each group involved in the pediatric transition between two centres in Quebec. A thematic analysis of the collected data was performed using QDA Miner v5.1. In …

Collecting Child-Patient Feedback: A Systematic Review On The Patient-Reported Outcome Measures For Hospitalized Children, Haneen Ali, Astin Cole, Adam Sienkiewicz, Steffie Rosene, Reagan Shaffer, Robert Thames

Patient Experience Journal

Accurate reporting of patient experiences is a crucial resource for hospitals engaged in patient-and-family-centered care (PFCC). However, studies suggest that most children do not respond to patient satisfaction surveys and are instead represented by their parents or guardians. This study reviewed instruments used to obtain feedback from children about their healthcare experiences for two purposes: 1) To understand the limitations of current tools and 2) To determine if creating a new instrument is necessary. A systematic review was performed on PubMed, Medline, CINAHL, and Web of Science to identify peer-reviewed questionnaires designed to collect children's healthcare experiences. Out of the …

The Impact Of Parental Presence In The Nicu On Hospital Alienation And Other Distress Measures, Katherine D. Taylor, Lindsey Mclaughlin, Devon Kuehn, Justin Campbell, John Kohler Sr, Jason Higginson

Patient Experience Journal

Parental presence in the neonatal intensive care unit (NICU) positively impacts infant development. Few studies have examined the impact of presence on parental distress. Alienation, or lack of trust in the healthcare team, may occur independently from other forms of distress. Increased parental presence was hypothesized to reduce alienation by allowing for more positive in-person interaction with hospital staff. Parents of infants born < 28 weeks or < 1000 grams were prospectively enrolled and completed several surveys measuring distress prior to discharge, including a novel hospital alienation questionnaire. Spearman correlation was used to compare distress measures and visitation rates of 68 mothers and 6 fathers. Alienation was rarely reported and was uncorrelated with other distress measures. Maternal presence was most strongly correlated with anxiety, though this was not statistically significant. Fathers who were more alienated were present in the NICU less and correlation between maternal and paternal alienation was strong. These results were not statistically significant, however. Though statistically significant results were not produced in this research, hospital alienation does appear to be a distinct concept that has been unstudied previously.

Experience Framework

This article is associated with the Patient, Family & Community Engagement lens of The Beryl Institute Experience Framework. (http://bit.ly/ExperienceFramework)

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Cancer Patient Perspectives During The Covid-19 Pandemic: A Thematic Analysis Of Cancer Blog Posts, Matthew A. Hintermayer, Mark Sorin, Joan M. Romero, Sarah M. Maritan, Owen J. Chen, Surabhi Rawal

Patient Experience Journal

The content of online cancer patient blogs has previously been analyzed to inform physicians about the cancer experience and patient concerns. The coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic has greatly affected cancer patients due to their vulnerable health status, as well as changes in cancer testing and treatment. We sought to qualitatively describe the concerns and experiences expressed online by cancer patients, survivors, and family members in relation to COVID-19. 152 blog posts written by cancer patients, survivors, or family members, were selected using combined Boolean searches and snowball sampling. Reviewers extracted subthemes from blog posts using line-by-line text analysis until …

A Student's Lesson In Healthcare Disparities, Daniel Oluwatimilehin Macaulay, Christine Khandelwal, Leah Rosen

Patient Experience Journal

This narrative was born out of a desire to examine the effects of healthcare disparities among minority populations. As a medical student, I had the opportunity to spend a 4-week rotation working with physicians specializing in palliative care during what is arguably the most challenging public health crisis in over a century. This provided a unique perspective that allowed the observation of the intersection of healthcare systems with underserved and vulnerable minority populations, and palliative medicine. It also allowed us to observe the negative consequences it has had, particularly during a hard-hitting global pandemic. The paper gives a brief introduction …

Patient-Centric Culture And Implications For Patient Engagement During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Umair Majid, Aghna Wasim

Patient Experience Journal

Some consider patient engagement as the “holy grail” of healthcare because of its potential to revolutionize how we view and address health system problems. Multiple efforts around the world have attempted to cultivate a patient-centric culture whereby health services are grounded by the needs and preferences of patients. Recently, health service organizations are engaging patients in a wide array of activities including research and quality improvement. There are many ethical imperatives and economic and social benefits to patient engagement such as higher patient self-esteem and trust, and a more cost-efficient system. However, these benefits have been realized in some contexts …

Modeling Distributed Source Control Infrastructure At Neighborhood Scale For Mitigating Flood Risk In Amite River Watershed, Ahmad Amin Shefai

LSU Master's Theses

Flooding has always been a major threat to mankind. This is particularly true in urban areas due to urbanization-induced increasing impervious areas and subsequent increasing urban surface runoff, causing an increasing flooding risk to urban areas in spite of the fact that extensive flood control infrastructure has been constructed. The overall goal of this thesis is to present a distributed source control infrastructure-based approach for mitigating the flood risk. The new flood mitigation approach is demonstrated through the model implementation of a series of distributed source control infrastructure systems in the city of Denham Springs at a neighborhood scale. The …

A Survey On The Influence Of Emotional Intelligence And Self-Esteem On Social Adjustment Of Librarians In Federal Universities, Emmanuel Chidiadi Onwubiko

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

The study examined the influence of emotional intelligence (EI) and self esteem on librarians’ social adjustment in federal universities in Nigeria. The study seek to ascertain whether emotional intelligence and self esteem predict social adjustment using a sample of 107 librarians drawn from 40 federal universities in Nigeria within the age range of 25 to 60 and a mean (X) age of 36.68) years and SD of 6.21. The multiple regression analysis shows that emotional intelligence has no significant relationship with social maladjustment thus showing a negative relationship. This indicates that there is a significant relationship between emotional intelligence and …

Guided Pathway Elements From The California Community College Counselor Perspective, Tiffany Welter

Dissertations

Purpose: The purpose of this qualitative multicase study was to describe what California community college counselors consider important elements of guided pathways that increase student success. Additionally, this study will explore how counselors describe the challenges of guided pathways. Lastly, this study identified counselor recommendations for improving guided pathways to increase student success.

Methodology: This qualitative study used a multiple-case study to explore what important guided pathway features California community colleges offer students from the counselor’s perspective. Semi-structured interviews were held with 12 counselors from six California community colleges that have implemented guided pathways on their campuses to capture rich …