Medicine and Health Sciences Commons^™

Coping Strategies For Covid-19, Jade Roman

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

Major: History and English

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Suzanne Bornschein, Student Health

I am writing weekly articles that include home activities, mental health resilience, and ways to Improve physical well-being to combat students’ worries and fears during this current pandemic. These articles can be found in the Morning Mail and Student Health 101/Campus Well section.

The Ugly Truth About Vaping, Julia Puzone

Annual Celebration for Student Scholarship and Creativity

Major: Biology and Sociology
Faculty Mentor: Dr. Suzanne Bornschein, Student Health

The purpose of my community action project is to expose college students to the ugly truth about e-cigarettes. Even though the popularity with e-cigarettes among teenagers and young adults is alarming high, many still do not know what these devices are doing to their bodies. I plan to inform teenagers of the known health risks associated with e-cigarette use through multiple resources both around campus and virtually. The goal of these posters and messages is to combat the glamorous side of e-cigarette use that many people see through advertisements …

Infrastructures And Health System Rebuilding After Hurricane Maria, Bridget Bojic, Lizbeth Santos Cortes, Jailene Amari Vazquez, Morgan Weiner

Health Sciences Student Scholarship

Bridget Bojic ’20 Major: Health Policy and Management

Lizbeth Santos Cortes ’20
Major: Health Policy and Management

Jailene Amari Vazquez ’22
Major: Health Policy and Management and Global Studies

Morgan Weiner ’21
Major: Health Policy and Management

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Jessica Mulligan, Health Policy & Management

Healthcare providers in Puerto Rico creatively improvised emergency solutions to continue delivering care while recovering from Hurricane Maria. In semi-structured interviews, health care providers described the destruction of infrastructure caused by the storm, the slow governmental response, and solutions they implemented to continue working efficiently. Providers described instances of community outreach, networking to obtain …

Nairobi Informal Settlements: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices And Needs—Round 2, Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To control the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce has implemented initial prevention and mitigation measures. Of concern are the densely overcrowded, poor urban slums where sanitation and social distancing measures are near impossible. COVID-19 would spread rapidly and be devastating under these conditions. To inform the Taskforce strategy, the Population Council COVID-19 study team utilizes rapid phone-based surveys to collection information on knowledge, attitudes and practices among ~2,000 heads of household sampled from existing prospective cohort studies across five Nairobi urban slums. Iterations of the survey will be conducted every 1-2 weeks. Baseline findings on …

Kenya: Covid-19 Knowledge, Attitudes, Practices And Needs—Responses From Second Round Of Data Collection In Five Nairobi Informal Settlements (Kibera, Huruma, Kariobangi, Dandora, Mathare), Population Council

Poverty, Gender, and Youth

To control the spread of coronavirus, the Kenyan Ministry of Health COVID-19 Taskforce has implemented initial prevention and mitigation measures. Of concern are the densely overcrowded, poor urban slums where sanitation and social distancing measures are near impossible. COVID-19 would spread rapidly and be devastating under these conditions. To inform the Taskforce strategy, the Population Council COVID-19 study team utilizes rapid phone-based surveys to collection information on knowledge, attitudes and practices among ~2,000 heads of household sampled from existing prospective cohort studies across five Nairobi urban slums. Iterations of the survey will be conducted every 1-2 weeks. Baseline findings on …

Health Information Management Careers: The Importance Of Skillset And Location On Salary, Danielle Sager

Applied Research Projects

Health information management is an engaging and dynamic occupational field that employs thousands of individuals throughout the United States across the spectrum of health care providing organizations. The ability to navigate these opportunities is influenced heavily by the location of available positions and the skillsets desired by employers. Through study of workforce development data and research in health information management one is able to determine the location and skillset of positions that will help distinguish oneself in a competitive marketplace that values not only education and experience, but the ability to lead in a field that is rapidly changing and …

Sustainable Micro-Flushing Toilets In Ethiopia, Paul Kelley

Health Sciences Student Scholarship

Major: Health Policy and Management
Minor: Economics and Spanish

Faculty Mentor: Dr. Terence McGoldrick, Theology

The Global Sustainable Aid Project, the nonprofit founded by Dr. Stephen Mecca, has now been placed in the hands of my professor Dr. Terrence McGoldrick. This organization trains workers and students in Ethiopia to build a micro-flush toilet Dr. Mecca designed with some of his students.

This project prioritizes the importance of sustainability and solidarity, two ideals that I have developed a strong passion for during my time here at Providence College. This project allows for low income, developing communities to use local and accessible …

469— Life Or Death: Decision Making In Sexual Disease Treatment Matters, Jason Ipolito

GREAT Day Posters

Syphilis is an STI that has recently made a resurgence in homosexual populations. When infected, a patient has two options: seek treatment immediately or do not seek treatment. I used a system of differential equations that includes susceptible, exposed, treatment receptive, treatment non-receptive, cured, and dead state variables in order to determine the relationships among transmission rate, treatment options, and death rate. My model suggests that an individual’s treatment option has a larger effect on death rate than the transmission rate inherent to the disease. The model also contains two sets of equilibria: an unstable trivial disease free condition and …

452— Potential Impacts Of Basic Reproduction Number On The Covid-19 Epidemic, Marisa Presutto

GREAT Day Posters

The basic reproduction number (R₀) of a disease can be thought of as the number of cases that one case will directly generate if the rest of the population is susceptible to infection. The R₀ of COVID-19 has recently become clearer; toward the beginning of the outbreak, the Imperial College Group estimated it to be somewhere between 1.5 and 3.5 (Imai et al. 2020), but they have now assumed a value of 2.4 (Ferguson et al. 2020). Using the Watts-Strogatz small-world model, I examined the effects of different R₀ values within the original range on the …

184— Mortality Rates Of Three Vaccine Preventable Diseases In Historic Rochester, Kayla Carlin

GREAT Day Posters

The purpose of this study is to explore and compare the mortality rates of diphtheria, pertussis, and pneumonia in Rochester, New York from the mid-19th Century until the mid-20th century. The hypothesis of the study is that the proportion of deaths from diphtheria, pertussis, and pneumonia decreased with the presence of preventative initiatives. Public health initiatives about each disease will be used to help explain the mortality trends. Mortality statistics were collected and analyzed using transcription data from Mount Hope Cemetery. While diphtheria rates generally decreased over time, pertussis and pneumonia rates did not change even with new immunization initiatives. …

215— The Fight For The Right To Live, Marlie Hess

GREAT Day Posters

The opioid epidemic is becoming a serious crisis throughout the United States of America, and addiction as a disease is the pandemic that people need to start paying more attention to than COVID-19. Addiction is a serious disease and those who suffer from it are often neglected from society. This can make matters worse for those with addiction. The capitalist mentality that this entire country is founded on permeates the Big Pharma industry, which can be attributed to being a big contributor to the opioid addiction crisis. Everyone knows someone who struggles with addiction—1 in every 3 Americans has a …

2020-04-22 A Message From Chancellor Roth, Paul B. Roth

HSC Messages from the Chancellor

No abstract provided.

Intervention Approaches And Potential Impacts Of Nutrition Education In Youth Ages 3-14, Lauren Barnhard

Honors Theses

This thesis explores the key factors impacting the health disparities associated with inadequate fruit and vegetable (FV) consumption in youth throughout America. Forms of nutrition education may be an effective means to increase FV consumption in youth, especially when utilizing specific teaching techniques such as taste education, experiential learning, enhanced curriculum, and adhering to age specific programming. According to the CDC, American students receive less than 8 hours of required nutrition education each school year, far less than the 40 to 50 hours that are indicated to affect behavior change. This signifies a need for increased program development and implementation …

117— The Effects Of Comorbid Alcohol And Cocaine Use On A Cognitive Maze Task, Shreyya Malik

GREAT Day Posters

In U.S., 1 out of 4 adults reported binge drinking in the past month, a prevalence that increases to over 50% in college populations. Binge drinking is a common precursor for alcohol use disorder, and risk of polydrug use also increases.Cocaine is frequently used in combination with alcohol. Little is known about the history of binge drinking and comorbid cocaine influence on memory. We developed a mouse model of alcohol and cocaine co-use to investigate how comorbidity influences performance on a working memory task. We ran two groups of mice that differed in their history of alcohol use. Group 1 …

483— Effectiveness Of Mmr Vaccination In Orthodox Jewish Neighborhoods, Meenu Mundackal

GREAT Day Posters

Measles is a highly contagious disease, where large outbreaks arise by direct contact between susceptible (unvaccinated) and infectious individuals. Many Orthodox Jewish neighborhoods were affected by measles from 2018-2019. To quantify the vaccination effort on this susceptible population, a retrospective analysis was used to study the NYC and Rockland County populations using a differential equations model. A subsequent model, known as a realistically-structured network model, studied only the NYC population, in relation to typical household size. Vaccination strategies were applied to three cohorts: unvaccinated family members, members with 1 prior MMR dose, and members with 2 prior MMR doses. The …

280— Exploring The Geographic Distribution Of Childbed Fever Deaths In Mid-19th Century Rochester, Ny, Meaghan Parks

GREAT Day Posters

Childbed fever, formally called puerperal fever or puerperal septicemia, is an infection typically contracted by women after childbirth. Historically, childbed fever was a serious threat to maternal health. Childbed fever is caused by exposure of open wounds or abrasions, which are common after giving birth, to group A and B Streptococcal bacteria. Ignaz Semmelweis discovered that hand washing using a chlorinated solution reduced cases of childbed fever in 1847. This project reviews the instances of death from childbed fever in Rochester, New York from 1837-1860 and later from 1907-1919 and attempts to determine which areas of the city had the …

391— Mental Health Supports Readily Available For College Students, Heidi Granville

GREAT Day Posters

College students who struggle with mental illness need more resources and support services readily available to them while they are in school. This would help them succeed both as students and as maturing adults. Data collected from Penn State conclude that mental health issues are increasing as time goes on, more students are seeking counseling services, and more students have considered suicide. This data serves a purpose that the current public policy is not enough. Ultimately, when schools are ill-equipped to helping students who suffer from mental illnesses, those students cannot reach their maximum potential, and consequently, the suicide rate …

484— Modeling Social Distancing Methods And Their Effectiveness In Combating The Spread Of Ebola, Rachel Fair

GREAT Day Posters

Ebola Virus Disease (EVD) is a rare but severe disease that is transmitted among humans through direct-contact with, and close proximity to, infected bodily fluids. From 2014-16, West Africa experienced the largest Ebola outbreak ever recorded, infecting over 28,000 people, and killing over 11,000. Although the symptoms of EVD are treatable, the disease can be extremely deadly, with an average of 50% EVD cases resulting in fatality. In areas where healthcare is scarce and vaccinations are not readily available, the practices of social distancing and self-quarantining have been shown to be highly effective in combating the spread of EVD. To …

465— Modeling Vaccine Efficacy For Tuberculosis In A Prison Population, Kaitlyn Mundackal

GREAT Day Posters

Tuberculosis is a highly contagious disease and is particularly problematic in confined communities such as prisons. I simulated how Tuberculosis moves through a prison population and tested how much vaccination effort is needed to control its spread. To explore this, I tested adding ever increasing numbers of randomly placed edges in a network and determined the size of the largest component. Afterwards, I removed edges in the model using two different methods, one illustrating if the edges were removed randomly and the other starting with prisoners that had the most connections, to simulate the effect of vaccination. My results show …

298— Rural Economic Growth And Disease Intervention In Ghana; The Edward Pettinella '73 Endowed Ambassadorship In Business, Lucas Sutton

GREAT Day Posters

Schistosomiasis is a leading parasitic infection that debilitates many individuals in sub Saharan Africa. Because this parasitic infection involves a snail as an intermediate host, we use a native prawn species as a natural predator to decrease the population of this snail community. This study focuses on Tomefa, a primarily fishing peri-urban community located oi the outskirts of Accra, the capital city of Ghana. A survey was also given to the local community measuring economic characteristics. In the laboratory, Macrobrachium spp prawn exhibit preference of Bulinus snails over Biomphalaria snails while non-parasitic snails were consumed in higher proportion to parasitized …

219— Insuring America's Youth: Examining The Success Of Medicaid And Chip Coverage, James Mcglynn

GREAT Day Posters

Children make up 23% of the nation’s total population, but make up 32% of all persons in poverty. Given the overrepresentation of children among the US impoverished population, questions are raised on how best to provide much needed medical coverage to low income children. Currently, programs such as Medicaid and CHIP seek to provide low or no cost health coverage to children in low income households. However, the uninsured rate for children has risen from 4.9% to 5.5% in 2018. This is equivalent to about 425,000 children becoming uninsured. Do Medicaid and CHIP do enough to ensure that children in …

269— Age Of Colon Cancer Screening - A Retrospective Review, Christopher Cook

GREAT Day Posters

Colon cancer is the third most common cause of cancer-related death in the U.S. In 2019, the American Cancer Society predicted that 101,420 people in the U.S. would receive a new diagnosis of colon cancer. Due to this high prevalence, there has been a recent debate about the appropriate age to start colon cancer screening. Currently, the American Society of Gastroenterology recommends that screening start for average risk individuals at the age of 50. Conversely, the American Cancer Society has recently recommended that colon cancer screening for average risk individuals begin at the age of 45. The aim of our …

118— Environmental Enrichment As A Treatment For Cocaine Relapse, Shreyya Malik

GREAT Day Posters

Cocaine addiction is a problem for millions of people, however we are still lacking an effective treatment. It is characterized by compulsive behaviour which marks difficulties in remaining abstinent, with a high risk of relapse. Here, I focus on the interaction between the post-drug environment and drug-seeking by testing one potential environmental treatment, an enriched environment (EE), to reduce risk of cocaine relapse. This study proposes to investigate neural circuits involved in environmental protection of context-induced relapse. Mice exposed to cocaine will be assessed for preference of a cocaine-associated context using the conditioned place preference (CPP) paradigm. Mice will then …

167— Success Or Struggle Of A College Student Based On Mental Health? A Review Of Suny Geneseo's Support Services, Keyanti Chavis

GREAT Day Posters

While there is research on mental health at SUNY Geneseo, few studies have examined firsthand accounts associated with the support services provided by the university and with individuals who have or have not had access to these resources. In this poster, I will present data from eight weeks of ethnographic data among students and staff on Geneseo’s campus. Lack of awareness about support services provided, complex stigmatization of mental health, and lack of appropriate funding and outside resources create the biggest barriers for receiving and facilitating mental health support services. I argue that a greater emphasis on mental health across …

Inconceivable: An Analysis Of Assisted Reproductive Technology For The Church, Mary Elizabeth Gresham

Senior Honors Theses

Infertility pushes the boundaries of emotional and physical health, which is why many couples inside and outside the church turn to Assisted Reproductive Technology (ART) for a solution. Despite what has seemed like silence from the Church, some individuals have braved the biological confusion and ethical dilemmas to evaluate the technology. Three major ethical viewpoints have emerged that each prioritize something over medical technology, namely community, order, or human dignity. This paper serves to educate pastors and church leaders on the ever-changing biology of ART as well as give voice to Christians that have spoken out on this issue. At …

Factors Associated With Prep And Pep Uptake Among The Latinx Population, Santiago Gudiño-Rosales, Melva Thompson-Robinson, Johanna Andrews

Calvert Undergraduate Research Awards

Advanced Undergraduate Winner

Uptake of PrEP and PEP amongst LatinX population has been low, despite being a population disproportionately affected by HIV. Systemic barriers and cultural factors affect general LatinX approaches to healthcare and may impact uptake of these medications. The purpose of this study is to assess the factors that are associated with the likelihood to take PrEP and PEP in the LatinX population. In this cross-sectional study, survey data was collected from 169 LatinXs from January - March 2020. Using the Sexual Health Model as the theoretical framework, the survey examined the following four constructs to identify factors …

Volume 12, Haleigh James, Hannah Meyls, Hope Irvin, Megan E. Hlavaty, Samara L. Gall, Austin J. Funk, Karyn Keane, Sarah Ghali, Antonio Harvey, Andrew Jones, Rachel Hazelwood, Madison Schmitz, Marija Venta, Haley Tebo, Jeremiah Gilmer, Bridget Dunn, Benjamin Sullivan, Mckenzie Johnson

Incite: The Journal of Undergraduate Scholarship

Introduction, Dr. Roger A. Byrne, Dean

From the Editor, Dr. Larissa "Kat" Tracy

From the Designers, Rachel English, Rachel Hanson

Immortality in the Mortal World: Otherworldly Intervention in "Lanval" and "The Wife of Bath's Tale" by Haleigh James

Analysis of Phenolic Compounds in Moroccan Olive Oils by HPLC by Hannah Meyls

Art by Hope Irvin

The Effects of Cell Phone Use on Gameplay Enjoyment and Frustration by Megan E. Hlavaty, Samara L. Gall, and Austin J. Funk

Care, No Matter What: Planned Parenthood's Use of Organizational Rhetoric to Expand its Reputation by Karyn Keane

Analysis of Petroleum Products for …

It's Not The Heat, It's The Humidity: Effectiveness Of A Rice Cooker-Steamer For Decontamination Of Cloth And Surgical Face Masks And N95 Respirators, Sarah N. Redmond, Lucas D. Jones, Curtis J. Donskey

Faculty Scholarship

No abstract provided.

Neural Circuit Dynamics For Sensory Detection, Sruti Mallik, Srinath Nizampatnam, Anirban Nandi, Debajit Saha, Baranidharan Raman, Shinung Ching

2020-Current year OA Pubs

We consider the question of how sensory networks enable the detection of sensory stimuli in a combinatorial coding space. We are specifically interested in the olfactory system, wherein recent experimental studies have reported the existence of rich, enigmatic response patterns associated with stimulus onset and offset. This study aims to identify the functional relevance of such response patterns (i.e., what benefits does such neural activity provide in the context of detecting stimuli in a natural environment). We study this problem through the lens of normative, optimization-based modeling. Here, we define the notion of a low-dimensional latent representation of stimulus identity, …

Kins 499 Mouthguard Use On Throwing Velocity, Nathan Iskowitz, Jo Morrison, Robert Blaisdell

Virtual 2020 Spring Student Showcase for Research and Creative Inquiry

Successful pitching in baseball may be due to several factors including the mechanics of the motion, the strength, power, flexibility of the athlete, as well as their intent and fatigue levels. The pitching motion is a very powerful, violent, complex and abnormal range of motion of the body. In recent studies, it has been widely evidenced that the ability to produce instantaneous high peak force outputs is related to success in sport. Therefore, the ability to produce higher peak force may be related to the ability to pitching in baseball. Mouthguards have been shown to significantly increase power production in …