Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Refining Best Practices For The Diagnosis Of Autism: A Comparison Between Individual Healthcare Practitioner Diagnosis And Transdisciplinary Assessment., Jessica Rae Stewart, Debra C. Vigil, Erika Ryst, Wei Yang

Nevada Journal of Public Health

The purpose of this study is to compare the diagnostic decision-making of individual healthcare practitioners against that of a transdisciplinary team. Despite national recognition of transdisciplinary assessment as the gold standard diagnostic approach, autism is most frequently diagnosed by individuals working independently in a variety of disciplines. The current study examined how closely these individual practitioners make diagnoses matching that of a transdisciplinary team. Twenty professionals from five different disciplines viewed videotape clips of fifteen children previously assessed by a transdisciplinary team. Results confirmed that individual healthcare practitioners matched the transdisciplinary team diagnosis on average only 65.6% of the time. …

Environmental Correlates Of Physical Activity Among African-American Adults, Tim Bungum, Jennifer Pharr, Paulo S. Pinheiro, Maria Azzarelli

Nevada Journal of Public Health

The purpose of this cross-sectional study was to identify perceived environmental correlates of meeting physical activity guidelines among African-American adults living in Southern Nevada. Trained interviewers phoned potential participants who lived in the 12 zip codes of Clark County, Nevada with the highest proportions of African-American residents. Respondents (n=237) answered 52 health-related and demographic questions. Slightly less than 50% of participants met physical activity guidelines. A factor analysis procedure produced two environmental variables, neighborhood safety and environmental supports for physical activity. Age, gender and educational attainment (p<.05) predicted the meeting of those guidelines (R2=.214), while neighborhood support for physical activity, neighborhood safety, and BMI failed to do so. This finding suggests that environmental factors are not strong predictors of physical activity among African- American adults, although environmental supports for physical activity approached significance. Future studies should consider assessing additional aspects of the built environment as an influence on physical activity.

Organizational Training And Relationship Building For Increasing Public Participation In A Public School District, John Poynton, Carole Makela, Don Haddad

Administrative Issues Journal

From the early twentieth century to the present, citizen participation in U.S. public institutions—particularly schools—has continually decreased. The trend has been linked to the bureaucratization of public schools and their increasing reliance on expert knowledge for solutions to school- and education-related problems. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of a parent training program designed to increase a school district’s capacity for public participation by parents and other citizens. The program—known as Leadership St. Vrain—provided citizens knowledge about school district operations and management (know-how) and relationship-building opportunities with key decision makers (know-who). This article focuses on the …

Understanding Hiv Care Delays In The Us South And The Role Of The Social-Level In Hiv Care Engagement/Retention: A Qualitative Study, Courtenay Sprague, Sara E. Simon

Center for Peace, Democracy and Development Publications

Introduction: In a significant geographical shift in the distribution of HIV infection, the US South - comprising 17 states - now has the greatest number of adults and adolescents with HIV (PLHIV) in the nation. More than 60% of PLHIV are not in HIV care in Alabama and Mississippi, contrasted with a national figure of 25%. Poorer HIV outcomes raise concerns about HIV-related inequities for southern PLHIV, which warrant further study. This qualitative study sought to understand experiences of low-income PLHIV on the AIDS Drug Assistance Program in engagement and retention in continuous HIV care in two sites in Alabama. …

Lhds Increase Their Use Of Ebdm Practices From 2010 To 2013, Kay A. Lovelace, Gulzar H. Shah, Carolyn J. Leep, Robert Aronson

Health Policy & Community Health: Faculty Presentations (1993-2023)

Background: An evidence-based approach is needed to effectively address the gap between population health goals in the United States and current morbidity and mortality rates. Recently, the authors developed an index to allow researchers to assess the frequency of evidence-based decision making (EBDM) practice in LHDs. The first descriptive analysis was conducted with data from the NACCHO 2010 Profile Study of Local Health Departments (LHDs). The current research was designed to assess changes in the percentage of LHDs using EBDM practices from 2010 to 2013.

Research Objective: To identify changes in the frequency with which LHDs carried out EBDM practices …

Best Integrated Writing 2014 - Complete Edition

Best Integrated Writing

Best Integrated Writing includes excellent student writing from Integrated Writing courses taught at Wright State University. The journal is published annually by the Wright State University Department of English Language and Literatures.

Maintaining The Boundaries: Teacher Preparation Program Admission Criteria For Screening Quality Candidates, Rebekah Miller-Levy, Diane Taylor, Laurie Hawke

Administrative Issues Journal

This study examines several Texas university-based teacher preparation program screening measures and admission criteria. The researchers examined those measures stipulated in the Texas Administrative Code, as well as criteria that exceeded those required by the state. Identifying these measures and criteria will allow programs to maintain the boundaries of who becomes a teacher, thus providing the quality teachers required to educate productive members of society.

Creating Learning Systems: Lessons From Public Health Practice-Based Research Networks, Glen P. Mays

Health Management and Policy Presentations

Practice-based research networks (PBRNs) provide powerful mechanisms for implementing research studies that evaluate the health and economic effects of delivery system innovations. This presentation reviews strategies, emerging findings, and lessons learned from PBRNs and related studies conducted in U.S. public health settings. We give special focus to studies that examine multi-organizational and cross-sectoral strategies for population health improvement.

Learning From The Past: Dual Credit, Nicole Mansell, Madeline Justice

Administrative Issues Journal

This study involved identifying, categorizing, and comparing critical incidents related to qualifying dual credit high school students’ decisions to enroll or not to enroll in dual credit coursework in either a traditional or early college high school. The purpose of the study was (a) to identify the reasons qualifying students decide to enroll in dual credit courses in a traditional or early college high school and (b) to identify the reasons qualifying students choose the traditional versus the early college high school. For this qualitative study, the research method employed was the Critical Incident Technique (CIT) developed by John Flanagan …

Little Emperors And An Army Of Orphans: The Government’S Control Over The Idea Of Family In An Overpopulated World, Corinna L. Miller

Honors College Theses

This research elaborates on the connection between governmental policies for population control and the psychological effects felt by its citizens. Governments enact laws to form and shape their country, but when plans to benefit society as a whole overspill into the personal rights of families, there can be unforeseen consequences that span across cultural, economic and physiological wellbeing. These side effects can have debilitating outcomes for countless generations to come, even after the policy has been abolished. In an age where exponential population growth is a severe problem, this study attempts to understand what happens when governmental policies influence the …

Perceptions Of Preceptors And Students On The Importance Of Writing, Tina T. Fields, Jeff J. Hatala, Richard F. Nauert

Administrative Issues Journal

Health administration programs vary from other administrative programs based on emphasis in writing. Prior studies about writing skills in professional degree programs show student writing skills are not at a professional level. There is no literature at present that identifies important and essential writing skills related specifically to undergraduate or graduate health administration programs. This pilot study surveys graduate and undergraduate programs’ residency preceptors to identify the important skills and forms of written communication used in the workplace and surveys students to discover their perceptions of what skills and written work they will perform in their initial job. Results show …

13th Annual Undergraduate Student Symposium, Farquhar Honors College

Undergraduate Student Symposium

The Undergraduate Student Symposium, sponsored by the Farquhar College of Arts and Sciences, presents student projects through presentations, papers, and poster displays. The event serves as a “showcase” demonstrating the outstanding scholarship of undergraduate students at NSU. The Symposium is open to undergraduate students from all disciplines. Projects cover areas of student scholarship ranging from the experimental and the applied to the computational, theoretical, artistic, and literary. They are taken from class assignments as well as from independent projects. The projects do not have to be complete; presentations can represent any stage in the concept’s evolution, from proposal and literature …

Stragegies For Attracting And Retaining Teachers, Paul Bland, Edwin Church, Mingchu Luo

Administrative Issues Journal

Attracting and retaining high quality teachers is a challenge for many school districts. This is especially true in a time of increased accountability and limited resources. This report details best practice in the training, hiring, improvement, and retention of high quality teaching staff. The authors explain how school leaders can attract quality teaching staff, provide effective new teacher induction programs, and establish procedures that will assist in retaining the best of the best teaching staff.

Generic Competition And Price Regulation In The European Union Pharmaceutical Market: The Case Of Cardiovascular Medicines, Berna Colak

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the extent of competition between generic products and therapeutic substitutes under different regulatory regimes in the European Union

(EU) pharmaceutical industry. In particular, this study investigates generic competition among the five largest European pharmaceutical markets; the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy

and Spain, with comprehensive IMS data for 10 years (1994-2003), in order to estimate the effect of generic entry on drug prices at the product level. This analysis finds that generic entry

has a negative effect on prices in countries with free pricing originator market, whereas in EU countries with strict …

The Effect Of Early Head Start On Child Welfare System Involvement: A First Look At Longitudinal Child Maltreatment Outcomes, Beth L. Green, Catherine Ayoub, Jessica Dym Bartlett, Adam Von Ende, Carrie Jeanne Furrer, Rachel Chazen-Cohen, Claire Vallotton, Joanne Klevens

Center for Improvement of Child and Family Services Publications

The high societal and personal costs of child maltreatment make identification of effective early prevention programs a high research priority. Early Head Start (EHS), a dual generational program serving low-income families with children prenatally through age three years, is one of the largest federally funded programs for infants and toddlers in the United States. A national randomized trial found EHS to be effective in improving parent and child outcomes, but its effectiveness in reducing child maltreatment was not assessed. The current study used administrative data from state child welfare agencies to examine the impact of EHS on documented abuse and …

The Santa Clara, 2014-04-03, Santa Clara University

The Santa Clara

No abstract provided.

The Targeted Open Online Course (Tooc) Model, Credence Baker, James Gentry

Administrative Issues Journal

In an era of increasingly hyped Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs) that seem to evoke feelings of both promise and peril for higher education, many institutions are struggling to find their niche among top-tier Ivy League schools offering courses to thousands of participants for free. While the effectiveness of MOOCs in terms of learning outcomes and student persistence is still unclear (see Daniel, 2012; Kirschner, 2012; and Jordan, 2013), one benefit of the trend are the innovative adaptations that smaller-sized, regional institutions have begun testing as alternative in-roads into the MOOC era. The Targeted Open Online Course (TOOC) model allowed …

Leveraging User Data To Drive A Website Redesign, Michael Blake

GW Research Days 2014

Background: One of the most challenging aspects of redesigning an organization's website is balancing the needs of existing users while optimizing the experience for future users. This balance is especially crucial in academia where new users arrive every semester and may remain for anywhere from a year to a decade or more. When faced with the task of redesigning its website, GW's Himmelfarb Health Sciences Library conducted extensive user research in an attempt to design a site that preserved the positive aspects of the experience of existing users while improving their experience and reducing the learning curve for new users. …

Effector-Independent Motor Sequence Representations Exist In Extrinsic And Intrinsic Reference Frames., Tobias Wiestler, Sheena Waters-Metenier, Jörn Diedrichsen

Brain and Mind Institute Researchers' Publications

Many daily activities rely on the ability to produce meaningful sequences of movements. Motor sequences can be learned in an effector-specific fashion (such that benefits of training are restricted to the trained hand) or an effector-independent manner (meaning that learning also facilitates performance with the untrained hand). Effector-independent knowledge can be represented in extrinsic/world-centered or in intrinsic/body-centered coordinates. Here, we used functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) and multivoxel pattern analysis to determine the distribution of intrinsic and extrinsic finger sequence representations across the human neocortex. Participants practiced four sequences with one hand for 4 d, and then performed these sequences …

Combat Paper Project, William Joiner Institute For The Study Of War And Social Consequences, University Of Massachusetts Boston

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Coming home from war is enormously difficult. A new language is required to express the magnitude of war’s effects and consequences. Combat Paper transforms the uniforms of battle to paper and from this transformation comes art. Developed by veterans of Iraq and Afghanistan in San Francisco, the project has now traveled broadly across the United States and the world.

Implementing A Community-Based Intervention For African American Mothers And Daughters, Teri Aronowitz, Nandini Sengupta

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Adolescents represent one of the fastest growing risk groups for HIV. Inner-city, minority youth are at highest risk because of concentration of HIV in inner-city areas, higher rates of STDs, and early sexual initiation. Mothers are the primary sex educator of daughters, and girls state their relationship with their mother was an important influence on their delaying sexual activity. With 70% of adolescent HIV seroconversions occurring among African American (AA) females, studies are urgently needed to enhance mother-daughter sexual communication. The purpose of this poster is to offer insights on the logistics of carrying out a manualized program.

Breakthrough Series Collaborative To Support Trauma-Informed Practice In Early Care & Education, Anne Douglass

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

This study investigated the use of a Breakthrough Series Collaborative (BSC) to promote the adoption of trauma-informed practices in urban early care & education (ECE) programs. Through this BSC, ECE programs implement new practices to promote safe, stable, and nurturing relationships and prevent trauma exposure; protect children exposed to trauma, help children heal, and support family protective factors that help children thrive.

Two Community Collaborations With Sexual Minority Women’S Ngos In Shanghai & Hong Kong, Connie Chan, Hsin-Ching Wu

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Based on research with sexual minority communities in the United States, Connie Chan, professor of public policy and public affairs, conducted comparative research with community groups in Hong Kong and Shanghai, China. She provided capacity building training and resources directly to the organization which provides outreach and service to sexual minority women and girls in Shanghai, China. Professor Chan also supported Queer Sisters – an NGO that provides advocacy and community outreach to sexual minority girls and women in Hong Kong – by co-creating a needs assessment survey and helping them to interview their membership in Hong Kong.

Connie Chan …

Massachusetts Hospital School Program Evaluation Enhancing Transition To The Community, Russell Schutt

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Throughout the years, MHS has responded to the changing medical needs of children and young adults in MA and continues to be a model program nationally. Currently, MHS educates approximately 87 students from 58 MA communities. Since 2003, about 10-17 students have graduated each year. At age 22, young adults with disabilities transition from students to emergent adults living in the community. Students graduating from the Massachusetts Hospital School (MHS) are faced with opportunities and choices with respect to how and where they will live, work, study, socialize and receive ongoing medical care. In order to understand how well current …

International Epidemics: Interdisciplinary Thinking And Global Citizenship, Rajini Srikanth, Louise Penner

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The Honors College aims to serve as a crucible for curricular innovation by enriching and deepening classroom study with on-the-ground learning. The symposium is a year-long course, with the winter session field trip giving students a two-week immersion in the details of HIV/AIDS health care delivery in one province of South Africa. Upon return, students volunteer at health centers or nonprofits exploring related topics, while continuing to study the complexity of South Africa’s history and its attitudes and approaches toward HIV/AIDS at the medical, cultural, economic, and social levels.

The Unequal Burden Of Debt And Its Impact On Health, Elizabeth Sweet, Zachary Dubois

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

Average household debt in America has tripled in the past 30 years. Much of this burden is unequally borne by racial/ethnic minorities and those with lower incomes, who face discrimination in obtaining loans and must devote more household resources to paying off debts. Being indebted is a strong predictor of suicide, depression, and other adverse mental health outcomes. However, its impact on physical health is underexplored.

Community Engagement And Research Section, Umass Center For Clinical And Translational Science, University Of Massachusetts Center For Clinical And Translational Science

Office of Community Partnerships Posters

The UMCCTS Community Engagement and Research Section works to improve health in Massachusetts by fostering community engaged research among UMass researchers and community partners. We do this through conferences, pilot funding opportunities, webinars, training, consultation, linking researchers with community partners, and an email discussion group (listserv).

Student Advocacy And Research Regarding Employability With Women In An Addiction Recovery Center, Christine Privott

The Open Journal of Occupational Therapy

This article presents a course project that allowed senior undergraduate occupational science students the opportunity to experience advocacy and leadership roles as they prepared to transition to entry-level occupational therapy programs. The students coordinated an on-site employment fair for women residents of one Alcoholics Anonymous-based substance abuse recovery center in Kentucky. This ultimately led to a preliminary qualitative program evaluation study of the participants’ perceptions of employability after participating in the fair. Following a semi-structured interview protocol, nine participants were interviewed by student investigators immediately following the fair. The resulting data were compared within and across transcripts, and coded for …

Redefining Frequent Emergency Department Users, Amy Waldner, Maria Raven, Danielle Lazar, Jesse Pines

Center for Health Care Quality

Frequent ED users are perceived to be a costly population that often abuse or misuse ED services due to a combination of unmet social needs and medical conditions that, in theory, could be treated outside of the ED at a lower cost. The reality is that factors contributing to frequent ED use are more varied and complex than originally believed.

Administrative Issues Journal: Table Of Contents

Administrative Issues Journal

No abstract provided.