Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Covid-19 Masks In Terms Of Functional, Expressive, And Aesthetic Consumer Needs, Lily Highley

Apparel Merchandising and Product Development Undergraduate Honors Theses

The purpose of this study was to assess consumers' perspectives of COVID-19 masks under the functional, expressive, and aesthetic areas. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, masks have become an “accessory” to everyday life, and it was essential to research masks under these unique areas and explore consumer perceptions.

This study took place after background research on the topic and the FEA model. The study included a survey sent to Bumpers College students upon approval from the IRB. The data was analyzed and interpreted specifically in the FEA areas and can be useful to better understand the students at the University …

A Consideration Of Transpersonal Research Methods For Studying Yoga And Mindfulness In Schools, Bethany Butzer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Over the past decade, interest in yoga and mindfulness in schools has grown tremendously, with preliminary research suggesting that these interventions may have a variety of positive effects on youth. However, some quantitative studies of school-based yoga and mindfulness have reported null and/or counterintuitive effects, such as increases in perceived stress, negative affect and psychological symptoms. In addition, some mixed-methods studies that combined quantitative and qualitative approaches have found inconsistent results, with the quantitative outcomes failing to show statistical significance, while students report benefits of yoga and mindfulness in qualitative interviews/focus groups. These inconsistent findings suggest that the field of …

Effects Of Brief Daily Kundalini Yoga Meditation On Self-Esteem, Mood And Emotional Self-Efficacy: A Randomized Comparison Study, Sonia Romero Martinez, Andrés Dueñas, Xavier Ordoñes

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

This randomized comparison study measured the impact of brief daily use of two types of kundalini yoga meditation from the Yogi Bhajan lineage on self-esteem, regulatory emotional self-efficacy, and positive and negative affect in a non-clinical sample of 46 Spanish-speaking adults residing in Spain. Results of the two meditation types—Kirtan Kriya and Internal Conflict Resolution—are compared. Results showed that both types of meditation had positive impacts on all study variables, though the degree of change and effect size depended on the type of meditation used. Results point to these relevant forms of brief daily meditation as simple and inexpensive tools …

Using Legos® In Research Facilitation: An Advanced Scripted Research Method, Samuel W. Root

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Transpersonal research methods can help individuals access useful information and material that typically reside out of conscious awareness. The playful activity of LEGO® block-building can be adapted for research purposes and used to overcome research impasses, for example. This paper presents a novel transpersonal LEGO® building process for facilitation in each of the four major phases of research. Readers are provided with a 6-step script that takes between 30 minutes and 1 hour to complete. Steps include: Prepare to Exercise; Set Intentions; Build While Intending Solution; Appreciate/Take In; Project and Actively Imagine; and Reflect and Ease Out. Future studies could …

Tripping In The Moment: The Spiritual Journey Of Baba Ram Dass, Charles S. Hamilton

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Ram Dass, the iconic, countercultural, spiritual seeker, brought the wisdom of the East to those of us in the West through his many books and frequent, charismatic dharma talks. This view of his spiritual journey describes the transformation of Richard Alpert, clinical psychologist and product of the Western milieu’s often-shackling conventional expectations, into Ram Dass, the free, embodied soul who, through explication and example, and with witnessing attention, tries to guide us all to the always present abode of loving awareness. Ram Dass’s idea of self in existence was transformed: first, from a psychological object of clinical study, to a …

Sexual Minority Rights Are Not Just For The West: Health And Safety Considerations In Africa, Robert Scott Stewart Ph.D., Dionne Van Reenen Ph.D., Richard Watuwa Ph.D.

Journal of Health Ethics

In a recent article, C.O. Akpan argues that it is “unnatural for a man to sleep with a man as with a woman, and the idea of marriage in this sense is an abomination” (“The morality of same-sex marriage: How not to globalize a cultural anomie,” Online Journal of Health Ethics, 13(1), 2017, p. 9). Arguments in favor of same sex marriage, he claims, are “driven and motivated by the human right fad” (p. 9) that is inappropriate for African countries.

We argue that the specific arguments Akpan employs against the morality of homosexuality and same-sex marriage are flawed. Our …

Is There A Doctor In The House? Medical Ethics And The Doctoral Honorific, Kenneth R. Pike, M. Scott Moore

Journal of Health Ethics

The proliferation of professional doctorates has reinvigorated debate over the use of the doctoral honorific. Doctorate holders are often addressed as “doctor” in academic contexts, but idiomatic American English associates “doctor” with physicians—licensed clinicians with doctoral degrees in medicine. The possibility of patient confusion has historically justified proscription of the doctoral honorific by others, including nurses, but recently such proscriptions have been withdrawn. An examination of history, language, and ethical reasoning leads us to conclude that, in the context of patient interaction, clinicians should eschew the doctoral honorific entirely. We think it appropriate for professionals to rely on training-pathway titles …

Table Of Contents—Masthead

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Book Review: Decoding Jung's Metaphysics: The Archetypal Semantics Of An Experiential Universe, Nicholas G. Boeving

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

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Going Berserk, Running Amok, And The Extraordinary Capabilities And Invulnerability Of Battle Trance, Jenny Wade

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Battle trance, which evolved from instinctive defensive and offensive behaviors for close combat, involves socially transgressive processes like becoming-intense and becoming-animal that produce non-ordinary psychophysical states useful in fighting. Berserkergang (going berserk) is one of the best attested types of battle trance and the latest in a long history of Indo-European ecstatic warrior cults, but the state has been identified cross-culturally in consecrated holy amok warriors and in juramentado. Colonial interpretations for centuries have tended to denigrate such fighting styles, even though they involve discipline, spiritual dedication, and altruistic self-sacrifice, especially by falsely attributing such states to intoxication or insanity. …

The Origin (And Future) Of Transpersonal Psychology In An Open Scientific Naturalism, Glenn Hartelius

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

A number of scholars well known within transpersonal psychology appear to be converging on open scientific naturalism as a philosophically and methodologically fruitful framework for transpersonal and related fields. This builds on the nascent open naturalism evidenced in the early years of transpersonal psychology, before it entered its metaphysical phase (ca. 1975 to 2000). Since it is necessary for science to assume some kind of world within which it is possible to do science, and not every aspect of that assumed world can be subjected to processes of empirical investigation, some of these necessary background assumptions are unavoidably metaphysical. However, …

The Luminous Night Of The Soul: The Relationship Between Lucid Dreaming And Spirituality, Tadas Stumbrys

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

Lucid dreams, in which the dreamers are aware that they are dreaming, can be a source of spiritual and mystical experiences. This empirical study aimed to explore the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality, taking into account the role of mystical lucid dream experience, in an online sample of 471 respondents, 95% of whom had lucid dream experience and 65% were frequent lucid dreamers. The findings support the relationship between lucid dreaming and spirituality: spiritual transcendence was positively associated with both lucid dream frequency and mystical lucid dream experiences. Thus having recurrent lucid dreams and mystical experiences in them may …

Exceptional Human Experiences Among Pilgrims On The Camino De Santiago: A Study Of Self-Reported Experiences And Transformative Aftereffects, Miran Lavrič, Snežana Brumec, Andrej Naterer

International Journal of Transpersonal Studies

The Camino de Santiago pilgrimage is an extraordinary endeavour that tends to trigger exceptional human experiences. Following our previous investigation of this topic, we conducted an online survey of 501 pilgrims in order to assess the frequency of different exceptional experiences (EEs) on the pilgrimage and their transformative aftereffects (TAs) in everyday life afterwards. More than 70% of the respondents reported improvement in terms of self-confidence, personal relationships and letting go of emotional “baggage”. The results show strong correlations between the observed EEs and the (consequent) TAs. We contend that walking the Camino de Santiago often produces exceptional experiences that …

Covid-19_Health And Safety Guidance_Fall Semester Information And Updates Webpages, University Of Maine

FAQ & Health Advisory

Screenshot of the University of Maine health and safety guidance webpage with information related to Fall semester information and updates.

David Prescott, M.D. Interview For The Boonshoft School Of Medicine 50th Anniversary Oral History Project, David Prescott, Kristen Dilger

Boonshoft 50th Anniversary Oral History Project

Kristen Dilger interviews David Prescott, a graduate of the Boonshoft School of Medicine working as a family practitioner. Part of the class of 1981, Prescott discusses his collegiate career, including discusses why he chose Wright State University's new medical college and talks about what it was like attending the college. He talks about the challenges and processes of attending a new medical college, and how attending the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine assisted him in his early career.

Period Poverty: Achieving Menstrual Equity In Bowling Green, Ohio, Courtney Foerg

Honors Projects

Period poverty is the persistent lack of access to sanitary products, menstrual hygiene education, and sanitary facilities (Alvarez, 2019). Until quite recently, it has received very little attention in the United States. This project proved the prevalence and relevance of period poverty in the United States. As an applied research project this project acted upon this finding and aimed to help combat period poverty in the Bowling Green, OH community. This paper details the process and results of a campus menstrual products drive and social media advocacy campaign to address the stigma of menstruation in the United States. The overall …

James Augustine, M.D. Interview For The Boonshoft School Of Medicine 50th Anniversary Oral History Project, James Augustine, Kristen Dilger

Boonshoft 50th Anniversary Oral History Project

Kristen Dilger interviews James Augustine, a graduate of the Boonshoft School of Medicine and now an Emergency Physician. Part of the class of 1983, Augustine discusses his collegiate career, including why he chose Wright State University's new medical college and talks about what it was like attending the college. He talks about the challenges and processes of attending a new medical college, and how attending the Wright State University Boonshoft School of Medicine assisted him in his early career.

A Full-Factorial Randomized Controlled Trial Of Adjunct Couples Hiv Testing And Counseling Components Addressing Drug Use And Communication Skills Among Sexual Minority Male Couples, Tyrel J. Starks, Kory D. Kyre, Christine B. Cowles, Juan Castiblanco, Catherine Washington, Jayelin N. Parker, Erin M. Kahle, Rob Stephenson

Publications and Research

Background: The past decade has seen increasing attention directed to the development of HIV prevention interventions for male couples, driven by epidemiological data indicating that main or primary – rather than causal – partnerships account for a substantial number of HIV infections in this population. Couples HIV testing and counseling (CHTC) has emerged as a standard of care in the US. This protocol describes a study that aims to evaluate the efficacy of two adjunct components to CHTC – communication training (CT) videos and a substance use module (SUM) – to reduce drug use and sexual HIV transmission risk …

Covid-19_Umaine News_Media Highlight Home Food Production Research, University Of Maine Division Of Marketing And Communications

Division of Marketing & Communications

Vermont Business Magazine, the Bangor Daily News, the Portland Press Herald and Maine Public highlighted new research from the University of Maine and University of Vermont that revealed that residents in their respective states produced more of their own food during COVID-19 pandemic.

A Biocultural Analysis Of The Impacts Of Interactions Between West Africans And Europeans During The Trans-Atlantic Trade At Elmina, Ghana, Heidi Ellen Miller

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

This project utilizes a biocultural approach to assess the demographics and health of the West African population from Elmina, Ghana. Elmina, selected by the Portuguese in 1482 as the site of the first European trade fort in sub-Saharan Africa, grew from a small coastal fishing village to a large settlement over the course of more than 400 years of trade and cultural entanglement. Taken over by the Dutch and then ceded to the British, the people of Elmina navigated significant cultural changes, changes and experiences that can be detected in their skeletal remains. Bioarchaeological research concerned with the effects of …

Copycat Mass Killings: How Personality Might Moderate Identification With Antisocial Characters, Emily R. Mazzurco

Kean Quest

Research indicates that certain personality traits are prevalent within mass killers. Aggression, social rejection, narcissism, fame-seeking, low self-esteem, and depression are commonalities with mass killers, specifically mass shooters. Identification or idolizing antisocial fictional characters is also a common behavior within these types of offenders. These types of killers often draw inspiration for their own crimes from past criminals or from film and TV, thus committing what is known as a copycat crime. The purpose of the current study will be to examine the effects of social rejection and instigation on the likelihood of identifying with an antisocial character in young …

Critical Pedagogy In The Time Of Covid-19: Lessons Learned, Carol Christine Hordatt Gentles

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

The abrupt closure of universities due to the coronavirus pandemic caused unprecedented challenges for educators. They struggled to transition to online teaching almost overnight. This has raised questions about the readiness of Higher Education for digitalisation and hybridization of learning environments and focused attention on the renewal of teaching and learning models. It is incumbent upon those who practise critical pedagogy to join this conversation; the mandatory transition has raised difficult questions around how to ensure continuity of an agenda to offer students humanistic and democratic learning experiences in the new virtual reality. In this paper I offer a critical …

Book Review: The Death Project: An Anthology For These Times, Ted D. Ayres

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

A book review of The Death Project: An Anthology for These Times.

Ted Ayres, Social Justice And Education Advocate: "Making It Count" With Book Reviews, Kristen P. Erdem

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

This is an interview article with a prolific reviewer of books seen on public television and in print. Ted Ayres had an inspired legal career, and his advocacy continues to this day. The year 2020, like no other year in our recent U.S. history, was a raucous reckoning for an array of social justice issues. As this theme continues in 2021, it is heartwarming getting to know a quiet advocate in our midst. Meet Ted Ayres. Ayres will be a contributor to the journal with book reviews. This is an introduction to the person, Ted Ayres as social justice and …

How The Common School Has Failed Hispanic Children—Witnessing The Severe Regression Of Language English Proficient Learners During A Pandemic: Teaching During Covid-19, Yvonne S. Herrera

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Personal reflection on the impacts of the common school on Hispanic children during the COVID-19 pandemic, when Hispanic children experienced less opportunities in becoming educated due to lack of accessible technology.

Overview: From The Desk Of The Guest Editor, Tonya Huber

Journal of Multicultural Affairs

Overview from the Guest Editor on this special issue on the impacts of Covid-19 in educational settings. One theme explored in the contents of this issue is the powerlessness many educators felt as the editors set out to hear, comprehend, represent, and amplify their experiences. Other themes include: appreciation and empathy, focusing on what matters, and new ways of teaching with technology.

Ums_Hr_Paid Administrative Leave Available For Booster Shots Email, Loretta Shields

Office of Human Resources

Email from Loretta Shields, Chief Human Resources Officer, University of Maine System to University of Maine System staff regarding UMS allowing staff to take paid administrative leave for COVID-19 booster shots.

Covid-19_Umaine News_Umaine, Uvm Researchers Find Increase In Homegrown Food During Pandemic In Maine, Vermont, University Of Maine Division Of Marketing And Communications

Division of Marketing & Communications

Screenshot of UMaine News press release regarding new research from the University of Maine and University of Vermont discovered that residents in their respective states grew, fished, raised, foraged or hunted more of their own food during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Nature Of Anti-Asian American Xenophobia During The Coronavirus Pandemic: A Preliminary Exploration Into Envy As A Key Motivator Of Hate, Daisuke Akiba

Publications and Research

Background. The current Coronavirus pandemic has been linked to a dramatic increase in anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate incidents in the United States. At the time of writing, there does not appear to be any published empirical research examining the mechanisms underlying Asiaphobia during the current pandemic. Based on the stereotype content model, we investigated the idea that ambivalent attitudes toward AAPIs, marked primarily with envy, may be contributing to anti-AAPI xenophobia. Methods. Study 1 (N = 140) explored, through a survey, the link between envious stereotypes toward AAPIs and Asiaphobia. Study 2 (N = 167), …

Covid-19_President Friday Futurecast_November 18, 2021, Joan Ferrini-Mundy

Office of the President

Weekly updates from Joan Ferrini-Mundy, University of Maine President, providing details about issues related to COVID-19 at the University of Maine and the University of Maine at Machias.