Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

The Accuracy Of A Clinician's Assessment Of Insertion Torque At Implant Placement, Britany Fabian Matin

All ETDs from UAB

Background: Primary implant stability contributes to the success of dental implant placement and affects long-term function. Factors that contribute to the primary stability and osseointegration of a dental implant include the quality and quantity of bone present at the site of placement as well as the shape and surface treatment of the implants. There are numerous methods that assist the clinician in determining implant stability during placement and to confirm osseointegration after a period of healing. Their reliability to predict implant success, however, has not been proven. Torque measurements acquired during implant placement have been used as a method for …

Priority-Setting, Cost-Effectiveness, And The Affordable Care Act, Govind Persad

Georgetown Law Faculty Publications and Other Works

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) may be the most important health law statute in American history, yet much of the most prominent legal scholarship examining it has focused on the merits of the court challenges it has faced rather than delving into the details of its priority-setting provisions. In addition to providing an overview of the ACA’s provisions concerning priority setting and their developing interpretations,this Article attempts to defend three substantive propositions.

First, I argue that the ACA is neither uniformly hostile nor uniformly friendly to efforts to set priorities in ways that promote cost and quality.

Second, I argue …

Biomechanics Of Lower Limbs During Walking Among Candidates For Total Knee Arthroplasty With And Without Low Back Pain, David R. Burnett, Naira H. Campbell-Kyureghyan, Robert V. Topp, Peter M. Quesada

College of Nursing Faculty Research and Publications

The effect of joint pathologies, such as unilateral knee osteoarthritis (UKOA) or low back pain (LBP), on bilateral gait symmetry has gained increased attention during the past decade. This study is the first to compare gait patterns between patients with UKOA and LBP in combination and with UKOA only. Temporal, kinematic, and kinetic variables were measured bilaterally during gait stance phase in 31 subjects with UKOA and LBP (Group I) and 11 subjects with only UKOA (Group II). Group I patients exhibited less hip rotation in the affected limb (A) than in the nonaffected (NA) limb during walking in contrast …

Validating And Optimizing A Crowdsourced Method For Gradient Measures Of Child Speech, Tara Mcallister Byun, Elaine Hitchcock, Daphna Harel

Department of Communication Sciences and Disorders Faculty Scholarship and Creative Works

There is broad consensus that speech sound development is a gradual process, with acoustic measures frequently revealing covert contrast between sounds perceived as identical. Well-constructed perceptual tasks using Visual Analog Scaling (VAS) can draw out these gradient differences. However, this method has not seen widespread uptake in speech acquisition research, possibly due to the time-intensive character of VAS data collection. This project tested the validity of streamlined VAS data collection via crowdsourcing. It also addressed a methodological question that would be challenging to answer through conventional data collection: when collecting ratings of speech samples elicited from multiple individuals, should those …

Refraction In Mozambique: Evaluations Of Practice And Development Of Competency Frameworks For Eye Care Personnel, Kajal Shah

Doctoral

Purpose The development of competency- based education for optometrists and mid-level eye-care personnel has been identified as an important component in the elimination of avoidable blindness and vision impairment. The Mozambique Eye care Project (MEP) is a multi-institutional collaboration, which seeks to facilitate greater access to training in eye health professions, which will ultimately contribute to providing affordable and accessible eye care within the public health system in Mozambique. An important tenet of the MEP is to develop and enhance the refraction training of all existing (ophthalmic technicians) and new eye care personnel (four-year training of optometrists and eighteen-month training …

Designing Effective Physician Incentives: Assessing The Relationship Between Patient Satisfaction And Clinical Quality In An Ambulatory Environment, Tawnya Bosko

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

As the United State healthcare system continues to evolve from a reimbursement system based on volume to one based on value, understanding the relationship between physician quality metrics such as patient satisfaction and clinical quality metrics is extremely important. In order to improve value by effectuating behavior change, physician financial incentives must be designed based on desired outcomes. Understanding the relationship between performance indicators and aligning incentives is integral to successfully incentivizing physician behavior change. This study assessed the relationship between patient satisfaction and clinical quality in an ambulatory setting and determined that they are separate domains, but certain types …

Effects Of A Mental-Health Clinical Simulation Experience Using Standardized Patients And Two Debriefing Styles On Prelicensure Nursing Students' Knowledge, Anxiety, And Therapeutic Communication And Psychiatric Assessment Skills, Debrayh Gaylle

Doctoral Dissertations

The purpose of this quasi-experimental pretest-posttest study was to compare the effects of two debriefing styles (insimulation and postsimulation) on (a) students’ knowledge of psychiatric assessment and therapeutic communication, (b) students’ performance of a psychiatric assessment using therapeutic communication, (c) students’ perceived anxiety related to a clinical rotation in psychiatric mental-health, and (d) students’ perceptions of the efficacy of the insimulation debriefing. The participants (n = 67) were senior, prelicensure nursing students enrolled in a baccalaureate degree program. Students were assigned randomly to either the treatment or the compression group and participated in a series of simulated interviews using student …

Neural Correlates Of Verb Argument Structure Processing, Svetlana Malyutina

Theses and Dissertations

Verb argument structure (VAS) is pivotal to sentence production and comprehension, since it determines participant roles, as well as their grammatical form and syntactic position in a sentence. Neural correlates of VAS processing have mainly been studied in terms of the number of arguments. Data on the neural and behavioral effects of other VAS characteristics are limited, whereas they would have implications for behavioral and brain stimulation treatments of language disorders.

The present research investigated behavioral and neural effects of three understudied VAS characteristics (number of subcategorization options, number of thematic options and number of number-of-argument options) in single-word-level and …

The Relationship Of The Mediterranean Diet And The Dietary Approaches To Stop Hypertension (Dash) Style Diet With Cardiometabolic Health, Yong-Moon Park

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Much evidence shows that the Mediterranean diet and the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH) style diet are associated with risk reduction of cardiometabolic disease as well as lower risk of all-cause, cardiovascular disease (CVD), and cancer mortality. A subgroup of obese individuals (metabolically healthy obese (MHO) phenotype) and normal weight individuals (metabolically obese normal weight (MONW) phenotype) have been identified to have different cardiometabolic risks compared with their counterparts in the same category of body mass index (BMI). Scarce evidence exists demonstrating a relationship between adherence to Mediterranean diet or DASH style diets with MHO and MONW …

Maternal Obesity, Gestational Weight Gain And Offspring’S Asthma, Kristen Polinski

Theses and Dissertations

Introduction: Obesity is common among women of childbearing age and intrauterine exposures may influence the development of early childhood asthma. A handful of studies have investigated pre-pregnancy obesity, but even fewer have thoroughly explored gestational weight gain as possible childhood asthma risk factors. Gaps remain in the literature and to our knowledge, none have longitudinally explored these relationships in a nationally representative sample of U.S. children.

Methods: We used data from the Early Childhood Longitudinal Study – Birth Cohort, in which children were followed through age four (n≈5,200). Asthma was based on parent report of a physician’s diagnosis. …

Exercise As Medicine For Diabetes: Prescribing Appropriate Activities And Avoiding Potential Pitfalls: Preface, Sheri R. Colberg

Human Movement Studies & Special Education Faculty Publications

(First Paragraph) In this issue, I have the pleasure of further reinforcing for you the benefits of engaging in regular exercise, along with the more expansive realm of appropriate physical activities for people with diabetes. Although physical activity is a cornerstone in the management of diabetes, and the health benefits of exercise are widely touted as "medicine" for diabetes, many individuals with this chronic disease fail to become or remain regularly active.

Impact Of Estrogen Receptor Alpha Signaling On Plasmacytoid Dendritic Cells In Systemic Lupus Erythematous, Jennifer L. Scott

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

Female lupus prone NZM2410 estrogen receptor alpha (ERα) functionally deficient (ERαKO) mice are protected from renal disease and have prolonged survival compared to wild type (WT) littermates, however the mechanism of protection is unknown. Plasmacytoid dendritic cells (pDCs) and type I interferon (IFN) drive lupus pathogenesis and estrogen acting via ERα enhances both pDC development and IFN production. The objectives for this work were to determine if ERα modulates pDC number, maturation, or function in pre-disease NZM2410 mice as a possible protective mechanism of ERα functional deficiency in lupus prone mice. We measured the effect of ERα functional deficiency on …

Does It Pay To Make The Grade? The Association Between Quality And Financial Performance In Nursing Homes, Stephanie L. Corbett

MUSC Theses and Dissertations

This study sought to answer the question, “Is there an association between quality rating performance on Nursing Home Compare (NHC) and financial performance in nursing homes?” A quantitative, non-experimental study involving archival data was conducted using data from Medicare Cost Reports and Nursing Home Compare. The sample included CMS-certified, freestanding skilled nursing facilities in the United States that participated in NHC from 2009-2011 and submitted Medicare Cost Reports from 2010-2012. There were 14,015 nursing homes in 2010; 14,139 nursing homes in 2011; and 14,265 nursing homes included in 2012. Data was analyzed with generalized linear models using the Statistical Package …

First Generation Azerbaijani Immigrants In The United States: Socio-Cultural Characteristics And Identity Issues., Ahmad Guliyev

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

The community of Azerbaijani immigrants in the United States, which is the subject of our proposed study, is a pretty recent phenomenon. Most Azerbaijani-Americans have immigrated to the United States mainly from Iran, Azerbaijan, Russia or Turkey. Azerbaijani immigration and integration in the United States have not been documented and studied thoroughly. There is no population survey that provides information of any kind on the attitudes and opinions of Azerbaijani Americans. Based on the survey conducted among sample of 103 Azerbaijani immigrants, this paper aims to provide the profile of the Azerbaijani community, socio-cultural characteristics, assess the immigrant’s identification with …

Contributions Of The Cognitive, Affective And Linguistic Domains To Strategy Use And Degree Of Strategy Use To Effective Reading Performance, Seyed Hassan Talebi, Behnaz Seifallahpur

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

According to Oxford (1990), different learner variables affect the choice of learning strategy. It was also found that effective L2 readers know how to use strategies to foster reading comprehension and ineffective readers have little awareness of strategies to read effectively (Yang, 2002). This study investigates the contribution of three relatively important variables and their components (namely, the cognitive domain or awareness and use of strategies, the linguistic domain or general English proficiency level, and the affective domain or attitude toward reading in L2), to reading strategy use in English. The second purpose of the study is to find out …

Luxury Consumption: Literature Review, Hümeyra Aslım Bilge

Khazar Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences

As the demand for luxury increases and luxury goods become more available, the concept of luxury has become an important research area for academic and business communities. The perceptions of people towards luxury and their expectations from the luxury goods/services might vary greatly. The features like brand image, reliability and quality constitute the positive perceptions regarding luxury. On the other hand, there are also certain features like excessive price and extremeness that can be associated with negative perceptions. The features of luxury can also be used to differentiate luxury goods from non- luxury ones. The perceptions of people towards luxury …

Additional Results For "Joint Entropy Of Continuously Differentiable Ultrasonic Waveforms" [J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 133(1), 283-300 (2013)], M S. Hughes, J N. Marsh, S A. Wickline, John E. Mccarthy

Mathematics Faculty Research

Previous results on the use of joint entropy for detection of targeted nanoparticles accumulating in the neovasculature of MDA435 tumors [Fig. 7 of M. S. Hughes et al., J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 133, 283–300 (2013)] are extended, with sensitivity improving by nearly another factor of 2. This result is obtained using a “quasi-optimal” reference waveform in the computation of the joint entropy imaging technique used to image the accumulating nanoparticles.

Respectful Maternity Care Resource Package, Charity Ndwiga, Charlotte E. Warren, Timothy Abuya, Lucy Kanya, Alice Maranga, Christine Ochieng, Mary Wanjala, Beatrice Chelang'at, Anne Njeru, Annie Gituto, George Odhiambo, Faith Mbehero, Lucia Maina, Jeremiah Maina

Reproductive Health

The Respectful Maternity Care Resource Package is a set of manuals, tools, and resources to ensure high-quality, respectful maternal and newborn health services. The resources help program managers, health workers, and technical advisors set up workshops and trainings for facility-based providers and community health workers. The workshops provide practical, low-cost, and easily adaptable strategies to improve respectful care.

The Respectful Maternity Care Resource Package was developed by the Heshima project as part of the USAID Translating Research into Action (TRAction) project.

Training facility-based health providers

• Facilitator’s guide
• Orientation slide deck
• Participant’s guide

Training community health workers

• Facilitator’s guide
• Orientation slide …

Anneau Vaginal À Progestérone: Évite Les Grossesses, Population Council

Reproductive Health

Cette fiche de renseignements fournit des informations sur l’utilisation de l’anneau contraceptif vaginal à la progestérone pour prévenir la grossesse. L'anneau vaginal à progestérone (AVP) offre une nouvelle manière de fournir un moyen de contraception. Il a été prouvé qu'il s'agit d'une méthode contraceptive sûre et efficace pour les femmes qui allaitent. Utilisé par ces femmes, l'AVP évite les grossesses en inhibant la croissance folliculaire et, par conséquent, empêchant l'ovulation; renforçant les effets inhibiteurs de l'allaitement maternel sur l'ovulation; étendant l'aménorrhée post-partum; et épaississant la glaire cervicale, et donc en empêchant les spermatozoïdes d'atteindre l'ovule. L'AVP donc étend la gamme …

Delivering Contraceptive Vaginal Rings, Population Council

Reproductive Health

To bolster sustainable contraceptive delivery and use, USAID recently proposed a renewed focus, articulating five key areas to address unmet need for family planning: Method Choice, Total Market Approach, Family Planning Workforce, Social and Behavior Communication Change, and Strengthened Supply Systems. In its Delivering Contraceptive Vaginal Rings project, the Population Council has entered into a cooperative agreement with USAID to introduce two new modern contraceptive methods in developing markets: the progesterone contraceptive vaginal ring (PCVR), a three-month ring designed specifically for spacing while breastfeeding, and an investigational one-year contraceptive vaginal ring—the Nestorone®/EthinylEstradiol contraceptive vaginal ring (NES/EE CVR)—that can be used …

Marie Stopes International's Sifpo Project—Strengthening International Family Planning Organizations, October 2010–September 2015, Population Council

Reproductive Health

The Population Council was a partner in the Strengthening International Family Planning Organizations (SIFPO) project implemented by Marie Stopes International. SIFPO’s mandate was to increase use of voluntary family planning (FP) services globally by strengthening selected international FP organizations with global reach and an extensive, multicountry network of FP clinics for achieving maximum program impact and synergies. This report outlines the Council’s role within the project: evaluate effectiveness of MSI’s FP programs to identify successful best practices and approaches; assist MSI to disseminate the findings of some or all evaluations; strengthen MSI’s internal research and metrics capacity with thematic workshops …

Union Health And Family Welfare Centers In Chittagong And Munshiganj: Are They Ready To Provide 24-Hour Normal Delivery Services? (Brief), Population Council

Reproductive Health

To date, the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established approximately 3,900 Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UHFWCs) in rural areas providing: family planning; menstrual regulation; vaccinations; and general, reproductive, and maternal health services six days a week. About 1,500 UHFWCs have been upgraded with the necessary staff and equipment to provide normal delivery services round-the-clock in rural areas. In rural areas, public-sector health facilities, including UHFWCs, contribute to only 12 percent of institutional deliveries. Until now, Family Welfare Visitors (FWVs) posted at UHFWCs performed only 0.3 percent of deliveries. …

Progesterone Vaginal Ring: Prevents Pregnancy, Population Council

Reproductive Health

This fact sheet provides information about how the progesterone vaginal contraceptive ring works to prevent pregnancy. The progesterone vaginal ring (PVR) offers a novel way of delivering safe and effective contraceptives for lactating women. When used by such women it prevents pregnancy by inhibiting follicular growth, hence preventing ovulation; reinforcing the inhibitory effect of breastfeeding on ovulation; extending postpartum amenorrhea; and thickening the cervical mucus, thus inhibiting sperm from meeting the egg. The PVR expands the range of contraceptives available to lactating women and has the potential to contribute to improving maternal and infant health.

Progesterone Vaginal Ring: Safe For Mothers And Babies, Population Council

Reproductive Health

This fact sheet provides basic information on the safety and effectiveness of the progesterone vaginal contraceptive ring. It works as a contraceptive by reinforcing the inhibitory effect of breastfeeding on ovulation and extending postpartum amenorrhea. The PVR is an effective and safe contraceptive for mothers, their babies, and their sexual partners. This method vastly expands the range of contraceptive choices available for nursing women.

Progesterone Vaginal Ring: Beneficial Role In Birth Spacing, Population Council

Reproductive Health

As a result of growing urbanization and changing social norms concerning the role of women in developing countries, the duration of exclusive breastfeeding and its impact as a contraceptive strategy has been reduced. This has given rise to the need for a contraceptive method that can extend the infertile period following delivery, especially in countries where access to other contraceptives is limited and where longer duration of breastfeeding is a social norm and a major benefit to infant health. This project brief provides information on the progesterone vaginal ring (PVR), which can enhance the effect of breastfeeding on birth spacing. …

Union Health And Family Welfare Centers In Chittagong And Munshiganj: Are They Ready To Provide 24-Hour Normal Delivery Services?, Md. Noorunnabi Talukder, Ubaidur Rob, A.K.M. Zafar Ullah Khan, Forhana Rahman Noor, Shongkour Roy, Afsana Fatema Noor

Reproductive Health

To date, the Directorate General of Family Planning (DGFP) of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has established approximately 3,900 Union Health and Family Welfare Centers (UHFWCs) in rural areas providing: family planning; menstrual regulation; vaccinations; and general, reproductive, and maternal health services six days a week. About 1,500 UHFWCs have been upgraded with the necessary staff and equipment to provide normal delivery services round-the-clock in rural areas. Yet, Family Welfare Visitors (FWVs) posted at UHFWCs perform only 0.3 percent of deliveries. This means that UHFWCs and FWVs are not optimally utilized to increase the rate of institutional deliveries. …

Introduction Of Dmpa In Public Health Facilities Of Uttar Pradesh And Rajasthan: An Evaluation, M.E. Khan, Anvita Dixit, Jaleel Ahmad, G. Pillai

Reproductive Health

India is committed to achieving the goals of FP2020, which, besides substantially increasing new contraceptive users, also demands adopting a rights-based approach and ensuring easy access, choice, and good quality services. The contraceptive method mix in India has been dominated by female sterilization for a long time. No new contraceptive method has been added to the national family welfare program for decades. Use of injectable contraceptives was approved in 1994 in the private sector, but is still not part of the national program. Recently some initiatives have been taken to make Depo Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) available through the public sector …

Reasons For Low Modern Contraceptive Use—Insights From Pakistan And Neighboring Countries, Batool Zaidi, Sabahat Hussain

Reproductive Health

This literature review forms part of an extensive research project to determine why, despite evident demand, contraceptive prevalence remains so low in Pakistan, especially for modern methods. The research has been conducted by the Population Council with the support of the Research and Advocacy Fund (RAF) and comprises four component studies: review of relevant academic, program, and policy literature; qualitative study of perspectives of men, women, and service providers in the country on family planning; situation analysis of contraceptive quality, supply, and access factors at health facilities; and examination of supply-chain issues affecting the availability of contraceptives. This review presents …

Willingness To Pay For Contraceptive Vaginal Rings In Nigeria, Salisu Mohammed Ishaku, Ayodeji Oginni, Godwin Unumeri, Deepa Rajamani

Reproductive Health

During the last two decades, Nigeria’s contraceptive prevalence rate (CPR) for modern methods remained at 10 percent, one of the lowest rates in sub-Saharan Africa. Following the renewed global commitments culminating in the 2012 London Summit on Family Planning with promises to reach an additional 120 million new users of modern contraceptives worldwide, Nigeria’s Federal Ministry of Health set a new target of raising Nigeria’s CPR to 36 percent by 2018. One way to accomplish this is by meeting the contraceptive needs of women in the immediate postpartum period and beyond. Attention is being focused on making proven contraceptive methods …

Using The Community Informant Based (Made-In And Made-For) Methodology For Estimating Mmr In Punjab, Ali M. Mir, Saleem Shaikh, Mumraiz Khan, Irfan Masood

Reproductive Health

Pakistan is one of the six countries that account for more than 50 percent of the world’s maternal deaths. Each year, there are nearly 14,000 pregnancy-related deaths. Although maternal mortality has fallen from 533 per 100,000 live births in 1990–91 to 276 in 2006–07, Pakistan has not been able to achieve its Millennium Development Goal target of reducing maternal mortality to 140 per 100,000 live births by 2015. Planners require a method that can provide reliable subnational estimates easily, cost effectively. and with greater regularity. The Research and Advocacy Fund offered support to the Government of Pakistan to assess the …