Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Impact Of The Covid-19 Pandemic On The Well-Being Of People Incarcerated In United States Prisons, Kimberly Rivera

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively impacted the population as a whole. However, the incarcerated population (which also experiences a variety of health disparities) has been disproportionately affected by the pandemic. Due to overcrowding, poor ventilation, and lack of resources, the incarcerated population already is at a heightened risk for negative health outcomes, made worse by the recent pandemic. To adapt to the rapidly changing conditions during the pandemic in 2020 and into 2022, new safety measures were implemented, but the unintended consequences associated with the implementation of these procedures have yet to be examined empirically. I conducted a qualitative content …

Antibody Dependent Enhancement Of Infectious Bronchitis Virus In Poultry, Zachary Hamilton, Barry Simpson Dr., Donald L. Reynolds, Dvm, Dr.

UCARE Research Products

Avian infectious bronchitis (IB) is a coronavirus infection of chickens that causes respiratory disease and reproductive problems in chickens. Currently, there are vaccines that are effective against IB. However, new variants and strains of avian infectious bronchitis virus (IBV) routinely emerge. A vaccine that is not the same strain as the virus is not completely effective in protecting against other variants because the vaccine will not allow the host antibodies to completely neutralize the strain. This is a problem because it makes IB difficult to control and diagnose.

Antibody-dependent enhancement (ADE) is a phenomenon whereby non-neutralizing antibodies, or low levels …

A Guide To Common Nutrition, Troy Scheer

Honors Theses

The purpose of this project was to use the knowledge I have gained through my undergraduate courses and apply it in a format that would be beneficial for the average consumer. This project was researched, written, and designed to be accessible by someone without a background in science or nutrition with the goal of educating the reader of some basic nutrition principles. With this knowledge, it is my hope that the reader will be able to make better nutritional choices and liver a longer and healthier lifestyle by first learning how to choose the right foods. While putting this project …

The Gut Microbiome And Xenobiotics: Identifying Knowledge Gaps, Vicki L. Sutherland, Charlene A. Mcqueen, Donna Mendrick, Donna Gulezian, Carl Cerniglia, Steven Foley, Sam Forry, Sangeeta Khare, Xue Liang, Jose E. Manautou, Donald Tweedie, Howard A. Young, Alexander V. Alekseyenko, Frank Burns, Rod Dietert, Alan Wilson, Connie Chen

Public Health Resources

There is an increasing awareness that the gut microbiome plays a critical role in human health and disease, but mechanistic insights are often lacking. In June 2018, the Health and Environmental Sciences Institute (HESI) held a workshop, "The Gut Microbiome: Markers of Human Health, Drug Efficacy and Xenobiotic Toxicity" (https://hesiglobal.org/event/the-gut-microbiome-workshop) to identify data gaps in determining how gut microbiome alterations may affect human health. Speakers and stakeholders from academia, government, and industry addressed multiple topics including the current science on the gut microbiome, endogenous and exogenous metabolites, biomarkers, and model systems. The workshop presentations and breakout group discussions formed the …

Nrc Health: Loyalty Insights, Grace Dickas, Allie Rauner, Keenan Allen, Utkarsh Hardia, Teckhong Lee

Honors Theses

One of the biggest concerns of health systems is to know how they can better serve their patients. Health systems seek to exceed patient expectations and inspire patients to return to their system for all their health needs. A patient who returns can be considered loyal to that health system. NRC Health collects patient data from over 9,000 health systems across the country. This allows it to provide data insights that inform health systems’ decisions. The ultimate goal is to increase patient loyalty for health systems by helping them understand how to serve their patients better. The team was tasked …

A Case Study Of Barriers To Dental Care In Nebraska, Kaitlin Buhler

Honors Theses

An important aspect of overall health is access to dental care, which is, unfortunately, oftentimes difficult to obtain. This study used data collected from a case study of three registered dentists in Nebraska to investigate the barriers to dental care, and identified the lack of dental insurance, limited access to free or reduced-price dental care, and dental anxiety as perceived barriers to dental care. Factors that did not seem to have an impact were language or ethnicity differences between patients and workers, distance to travel, comfortability with receiving free or reduced-price dental care, knowledge of how often to visit the …

Why Does The Importance Of Education For Health Differ Across The United States?, Blakelee R. Kemp, Jennifer Karas Montez

Department of Sociology: Faculty Publications

The positive association between educational attainment and adult health (“the gradient”) is stronger in some areas of the United States than in others. Explanations for the geographic pattern have not been rigorously investigated. Grounded in a contextual and life-course perspective, the aim of this study is to assess childhood circumstances (e.g., childhood health, compulsory schooling laws) and adult circumstances (e.g., wealth, lifestyles, economic policies) as potential explanations. Using data on U.S.-born adults aged 50 to 59 years at baseline (n = 13,095) and followed for up to 16 years across the 1998 to 2014 waves of the Health and Retirement …

Nutritional Strategies For Nurses In A Fast Paced Occupation, Zachary Christman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The foundation of the medical system are the nurses and certified medical assistants. Their personal health condition affects how well diseases and other medical conditions are handled. This article will begin with an overview of the eating behavior of nurses. Three different interventions which have been shown effective in a fast paced workplace are presented in order to improve the health of nurses and certified medical assistants. The first intervention is organizational changes that would increase the amount of time nursing staff have to eat. The second is the use of a messenger bag delivery system to provide needed food, …

Design Of A Distributed Real-Time E-Health Cyber Ecosystem With Collective Actions: Diagnosis, Dynamic Queueing, And Decision Making, Yanlin Zhou

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

In this thesis, we develop a framework for E-health Cyber Ecosystems, and look into different involved actors. The three interested parties in the ecosystem including patients, doctors, and healthcare providers are discussed in 3 different phases. In Phase 1, machine-learning based modeling and simulation analysis is performed to remotely predict a patient's risk level of having heart diseases in real time. In Phase 2, an online dynamic queueing model is devised to pair doctors with patients having high risk levels (diagnosed in Phase 1) to confirm the risk, and provide help. In Phase 3, a decision making paradigm is proposed …

What Roles Do Chinese Health Sciences Libraries Play In Their Nation's Cigarette Smoking Public Health Crisis?, Charles J. Greenberg, Lin Wu, Xuyu Zhou, Susan Yutong Feng, Sam Bodong Chen

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

Objectives: Cigarette smoking remains a major cause of death in China. Are health sciences libraries in China currently providing awareness, advocacy, or research support for the societal benefits of smoking reduction? Methods: Following institutional review board approval, Library contacts for Chinese schools of medicine, public health, and pharmacy were identified. A bilingual online survey was constructed to obtain respondents’ demographic detail and answers to questions about library resources and services that constitute academic awareness, advocacy, curriculum, or research support about tobacco and smoking. Results: 43% of reporting librarians work on a smoke-free campus. 100% of all reporting libraries work in …

Strategic Discussions For Nebraska: Opportunities For Nebraska -- Food Scarcity, Mary Garbacz

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

Strategic Discussions for Nebraska is a program in the University of Nebraska-Lincoln Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources that produces an annual publication called Opportunities for Nebraska, focusing on a different topic each year. The publication is produced in hard copy and also is available online at www.sdn.unl.edu.

The content for each publication is produced by UNL students enrolled in a Magazine Writing course each spring semester, taught by the SDN coordinator. Students conduct interviews with UNL researchers and write stories for inclusion in the publication. The interviews are captured on video and are edited into video montages, …

Reassessing The Architecture Of The Health Beliefs Models In Low-Income Diverse Families, Krista B. Highland

Department of Psychology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Health beliefs contribute to health outcomes. These health beliefs extend to include health beliefs parents have regarding their children’s health. However, the role of parental health beliefs remains unexplored among a low-income population. This study aims to assess these beliefs and the effects they have on child health. Furthermore, this study aims to delineate potential belief differences between socioecological-level groups (e.g. population density, Latino identification, and insurance coverage). The long-term goal is to understand the relationships among various personal health beliefs and parental health beliefs, psychosocial factors, community factors, cultural factors, organizational factors, and healthcare perceptions among this at-risk population. …

Understanding Mesosystemic Influences On Reported Health Among Rural Low-Income Women: A Structural Equation Analysis, Tiffany Wigington

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

While ensuring access to health insurance and health care services is important, emerging research indicates that individual health and well-being result from a complex array of environmental, social, and psychological factors. The delineation of how factors of health and well-being unfold and impact rural low-income women is particularly salient for social workers who provide services to rural residents and who work within a rural context. Utilizing components from the ecological systems perspective, this study explored how the factors associated with health risk influenced reported health and mesosystemic processes among rural low-income women. This sample (n=304) for this study was drawn …

Conceptions Regarding Children’S Health: An Examination Of Ethnotheories In A Sending And Receiving Community, Maria Rosario De Guzman, Jennifer Deleon, Gloria Gonzalez-Kruger, Rodrigo Cantarero

Department of Child, Youth, and Family Studies: Faculty Publications

Ethnotheories are beliefs that adults hold about children and the factors that impact upon their development. Scholars suggest that “ethnotheories” serve as cultural models that underlie motivations for parenting practices and the way adults organize children’s early experiences. This study examines Mexican adults’ ethnotheories about children’s health in two communities that are linked by transnational migrants and serve as sending and receiving communities for workers. Forty-four Mexican adults in six focus groups discussed well-being issues affecting children in their communities. Qualitative analyses using grounded theory revealed a complex conception of children’s health issues that included physical, psychological, and behavioral components …

A Dyadic Examination Of Daily Health Symptoms And Emotional Well-Being In Late-Life Couples, Jeremy B. Yorgason, David Almeida, Shevaun D. Neupert, Avron Spiro Iii, Lesa Hoffman

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study investigated the link between daily health symptoms and spousal emotional well-being in a sample of 96 older dyads. Higher negative mood and lower positive mood were associated with spousal symptoms in couples wherein husbands or wives reported higher average levels of symptoms. For wives, partner effects were moderated by husbands’ marital satisfaction and illness severity. Specifically, higher husband marital satisfaction and illness severity were associated with higher negative mood and lower positive mood for wives on days where husbands reported higher symptom levels. In their work with later-life families, practitioners and educators should address long-term and daily health-related …