Social and Behavioral Sciences Commons^™

Access To Digital Health Technologies: Personalized Framework And Global Perspectives, Sanjiv M Narayan, Mina K Chung, Demilade Adedinsewo, Luisa C C Brant, Leslie L Davis, David Duncker, Jennifer L Hall, Janet K Han, Carolyn S P Lam, Eldrin Lewis, Joseph Loscalzo, Manlio F Márquez, Vasiliki Rahimzadeh, Fatima Rodriguez, Prashanthan Sanders, Emma Svennberg, Kenneth Stein, Mintu Turakhia, Clyde Yancy, Antonis A Armoundas

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

The emergence and rapid adoption of digital health technologies (DHT) present unprecedented opportunities to democratize and reduce disparities in health care by monitoring health and disease at the point of care in all patients. However, limited access to DHT is becoming a major obstacle to realizing these goals. Access to DHT is influenced not only by well-recognized social determinants of health, but also by digital determinants of health, such as digital literacy and the need for broad access to digital infrastructure, as well as commercial and economic factors. Addressing these challenges and designing unbiased systems of care are essential to …

Clinicians’ Views On A Patient Decision Aid For Deep Brain Stimulation In Parkinson’S Disease, Hillary S King, Jennifer Blumenthal-Barby, Benjamin H Levi, Sol De Jesus, Harini Sarva, Laura Y Cabrera

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Introduction: For people with Parkinson's disease (PD), deciding whether to pursue deep brain stimulation (DBS) has become increasingly complex. Evidence suggests current approaches to collaborative decision-making may fall short of accepted standards. Thus, a decision support intervention, such as a patient decision aid (PtDA) may be warranted. PtDAs have been shown to improve patients' knowledge, expectations, and participation in decision-making for other, similar healthcare decisions. We therefore sought to assess neurologists' awareness of, and experience using, PtDAs, and to solicit their opinions on the ideal features of a PtDA for PD patients considering DBS.

Methods: Sixteen United States-based neurology clinicians …

Nato's Evolution And European Security Dynamics, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) has transformed dramatically since the end of the Cold War. As a collective defense alliance, it was primarily focused on defending itself against the Soviet Union. NATO is now focused on addressing multiple types of threats: traditional, hybrid, and non-traditional. This study uses a qualitative methodological approach that includes a systematic content review of NATO’s Strategic Concepts from to 1991–2022; NATO Summit Communiques; NATO Defense Planning Guidance and Elite Speeches. This allows us to analyse the causes and effects of NATO’s transformation over time. Our results suggest that because of Russia’s actions as a …

Strategic Mineral Competition And Democratic Governance In Africa, Chick Edmund

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

African countries have become focal points of a new round of competition among global powers to access key minerals required for an emerging green transition, as well as for advanced digital infrastructure and modern weaponry. In addition to their relatively high level of reserves of such minerals, which include cobalt, lithium, graphite and several types of rare earths, Africa is also home to many of the world’s most important deposits. These mineral riches present, however, a contradictory situation: on one hand, they represent the critical resources needed to achieve a low-carbon future; but on the other hand, these same resources …

Essays On Politics And Ideology In Asset Management, Madison Borrelli

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This dissertation examines how political influence and ideology shape the investment and governance decisions of institutional investors. My first essay studies the effects of political interference on public pension plan asset allocation. Plans facing investment restrictions shift away from low-cost traditional assets toward higher-fee, lower-performing alternative assets. While politicians advocating these restrictions receive increased media attention, state economies do not benefit. These findings underscore how political incentives create agency problems that adversely affect investment decisions and outcomes.

The second essay examines whether differences in political ideology between asset managers and investors give rise to conflicts of interest. Mutual fund institutions …

Examining Team Leader Visual Dynamics And Team Performance In Pediatric Emergency Simulations, Annamarie Brosnihan

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

Pediatric medical emergencies are dynamic, high-intensity clinical situations that demand coordinated interdisciplinary actions for optimal patient outcomes. Effective teamwork and leadership are critical, especially during the preparatory phase. Here, team leaders define task goals, assign individual roles, and maintain situational awareness. This phase directs attention, organizes team dynamics, and ensures medical interventions are deployed properly. Medical simulations provide a unique opportunity to capture dynamic leadership behaviors in a controlled low-stakes environment using multimodal data, such as eye tracking, to gain insight into team leader cognitive processes (i.e., attention allocation and information processing). Prior research suggests that leaders who visually attend …

The Bite Model And Multi-Level Marketing: How Monat Propagates, Lilly D. Cheung

Graduate Studies Theses and Dissertations 2026

This study aims to understand how MONAT Global Corp, a Multi-Level Marketing (MLM) company, utilizes rhetoric that aligns with Steven Hassan’s BITE Model of Authoritarian Control. Hassan is a cult expert and cult survivor whose work primarily explains undue influence and thought control with BITE representing Behavior, Information, Thought, and Emotional control. The MLM MONAT is a haircare brand that operates through a recruitment-and-sales-based hierarchy, in which sellers sign up and work under one another in a layered marketing structure. To meet quotas and maintain ranks, representatives will use rhetorical strategies to recruit new sellers beneath them in their ‘downline’ …

Symmetry, Presumptions, And The Judges Design, Murat C. Mungan

Faculty Scholarship

An instrumental variables approach called ‘the judges design’ used frequently in social sciences relies on an assumption called ‘average monotonicity’. This assumption pertains to how different judges’ (or other classifiers’) decision making processes relate to each other. Violations of it are hard to detect, which raises the importance of it being supported by a plausible theory. Decisions of judges who solve Bayesian decision problems violate average monotonicity as long as the signals they process are symmetric and they do not possess strong presumptions. This result is extended to cases where judge presumptions are symmetrically distributed and may include strong presumptions. …

The 2026 World Cup, In Trump’S Shadow, Richard Holtzman

History, Literature, and the Arts Faculty Journal Articles

This essay examines President Donald Trump’s rhetorical interventions in the lead-up to the 2026 FIFA World Cup. It is inspired by Eduardo Galeano’s Soccer in Sun and Shadow, which interprets football as a mirror reflecting broader political, cultural, and economic realities. My analysis explores how Trump commandeered the World Cup through spectacle, transforming it into a stage for symbolically demonstrating his power and indulging his ego. The president’s rhetorical behavior is explored and critiqued through three case studies and a final vignette: (1) the establishment of a White House World Cup Task Force, (2) the president’s threats to relocate …

Strategic Decoupling: How Great Power Competition Reshapes Domestic Economic Policy In The United States And China, Chick Edmond

Political Science & Geography Faculty Publications

Objectives:
The core idea of this research is that states react to great-power competitions using institutionally dependent paths: the U.S. uses regulatory tools such as export controls, investment screening, and targeted subsidies based on its fragmented, legally mediated-governance structure; whereas, China uses state-driven tools such as central planning directives, State-Owned Enterprise (SOE) mandates, and Policy Bank lending driven by its hierarchical Party-State structure

Methods:
This research utilizes a qualitative comparative case study model to compare how the U.S. and China have developed different forms of domestic economic policy in reaction to competing interests of being a global superpower. A comparative …

Neighborhood Socioeconomic Deprivation And Physical Activity Associate With Extracellular Vesicle Size And Cargo In A Community-Based Cohort Of Women, Yvonne Baumer, Elizabeth M. Aquino Peterson, Matthew R. Bavuso, Noel Miller, Cristhian A. Gutierrez-Huerta, Nithya P. Vijayakumar, Sam J. Neally, Kaveri Curlin, Valerie M. Mitchell, Billy S. Collins, Neelam R. Redekar, Subrata Paul, Anca D. Dobrian, Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

African American (AA) women face disproportionate cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk due to adverse social determinants of health (SDoH), including lower socioeconomic status (SES). Physical activity (PA) and plasma extracellular vesicles (EVs) modulate CVD risk, but their relationships with SDoH remain unclear. This study examines associations between SDoH, PA, and plasma EVs in a Washington, DC-based cohort of at-risk AA women. Participants (N = 24, Age: 57 ± 12, BMI: 35 ± 6, ASCVD: 9 ± 5) joined the Step It Up Community-Engaged, Digital Health Physical Activity Intervention pilot study. EVs were isolated from fasting plasma samples. Multivariable regression, adjusted for …

The Interplay Between Loneliness, Cortisol, And Nk Cell Function: The Role Of Cortisol In Nk Cell Dysfunction, Abhinav Saurabh, Yvonne Baumer, Laurel G. Mendelsohn, Elizabeth M. Aquino Peterson, Dana Sadler, Shirley J. Lopez De Leon, Ayushi Dave, Andrew S. Baez, Lola R. Ortiz-Whittingham, Mario A. Pita, Manuel A. Cintron, Hannatu A. Tarfa, Sandy T. Reynolds, Shelby R. Hicks, Sonal Sharda, J. Eleanor Seo, Maria Lopez-Ocasio, Pradeep K. Dagur, Skyler A. Kuhn, Neelam R. Redekar, James F. Troendle, Ayanna L. Wells, Marie Marah, Katherine J. Tolentino, Michael J. Corley, Alika K. Maunakea, Lynnette K. Nieman, Marcus R. Andrews, Tiffany M. Powell-Wiley

Department of Biomedical and Translational Sciences Faculty Publications

Chronic psychosocial stressors contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) and related risk factors, particularly in under-resourced communities. Psychosocial stressors activate the hypothalamic-pituitary-adrenal (HPA) axis, leading to sustained cortisol action on immune cells. Natural killer (NK) cells are altered in distribution and function in cardio-metabolic diseases; however, pathways linking cortisol as a marker of chronic stress to NK cell dysfunction remain understudied. We recruited 186 African American women from the Step It Up Community-Engaged, Digital Health Physical Activity Intervention study and collected cortisol, NK cell measures, and psychosocial stress measures using validated questionnaires, including chronic stress and loneliness. Plasma cortisol levels were …

Resilient Built Environment: An Overview On Design Strategies For Coastal Adaptation To Sea Level Rise, Farzaneh Soflaei, Gelareh Abdolzadeh, Navid Ziaee, Mohammad Amin Jafari, Faeghe Borhani

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This paper delves into the escalating risks faced by urban coastal communities due to tidal and storm flooding, exacerbated by climate change-induced Sea Level Rise (SLR). Projections indicate a potential increase in sea levels by at least 3 feet by 2100, with historical data revealing an average annual rise of 1.2-1.7 mm since the 1900s. With over 300 million individuals inhabiting coastal areas, low-lying regions emerge as particularly vulnerable to the impacts of SLR. This accelerated rise amplifies the significant challenge of nuisance flooding, a local-scale issue aggravated by high tide and winds, leading to inundation, road closures, infrastructure deterioration, …

Physics-Based Multi-Hazard Fragility Modeling Of Low-Rise Wood-Frame Buildings Under Hurricane-Induced Wind And Surge, Mumtasirun Nahar, Abdullah M. Braik, Mohammad Syed, Maria Koliou, Petros Sideris

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Coastal buildings are exposed to concurrent hurricane-induced wind and storm surge, yet their vulnerability is commonly assessed using separate single-hazard models that neglect hazard interaction. This study developed a physics-based finite element framework to evaluate the performance of a low-rise light wood-frame building under simultaneous wind and surge-wave loading. A detailed three-dimensional model was constructed using a sub-assembly strategy that explicitly represented framing members, sheathing systems, and critical connections. Structural response was evaluated across a hazard space defined by wind speed, still-water depth, and flow velocity, and component- and system-level fragility functions were derived using Monte Carlo simulation and generalized …

Failure Mechanism Of A Small Vertical Pier Under Post-Typhoon Wind-Wave Forcing, Kyu Tae Shim, Kyu Han Kim, Bumshick Shin, Hyun Dong Kim

Civil & Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

This study investigated the failure process and major contributing factors of the north pier at Hongdo, located off the southwestern coast of Korea, which has experienced repeated damage and a history of repair and reinforcement. The 2016 damage event was selected for detailed analysis. Because direct wave observations were not available at the time of the damage, the offshore wind field was reconstructed using WRF, and the wave conditions were estimated using WAM and SWAN. The waves in front of the pier during the damage event were estimated to have been lower than the design wave adopted for the reinforcement …

Association Between Neighborhood Social Determinants Of Health And Stillbirth, Tetsuya Kawakita, Misa Hayasaka, Ann M. Harper, John Brush, George Saade

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

OBJECTIVE:

To examine the association between neighborhood-level social determinants of health and stillbirth.

METHODS:

We performed a retrospective cohort study of deliveries that occurred at a gestational age of at least 20 weeks within a five-hospital system (2012-2022). Electronic health record data mapped to the Observational Medical Outcomes Partnership Common Data Model were geocoded using addresses at the time of delivery and linked to neighborhood health indices, which included the Area Deprivation Index (ADI), Maternal Vulnerability Index (MVI), and Social Vulnerability Index (SVI) at the Census tract level. Stillbirths were adjudicated by medical record review. Modified Poisson regression generated relative …

Mediating Effect Of Social Determinants Of Health Between Race And Phthalate Biomarkers In Pregnancy, Tetsuya Kawakita, Misa Hayasaka, Carole Barake, Trinity Soto, Jillian Fleming, Amir Lueth, Stevens Danielle, Alfred Abuhamad, Ann Pryzybylska, Elena Sinkovskaya, Kelly K. Ferguson, George Saade

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

Introduction

Prenatal phthalate exposure is linked to adverse reproductive and developmental outcomes and is consistently higher among non‐Hispanic Black compared to non‐Hispanic White pregnant individuals, yet the factors responsible for these disparities are poorly characterized. We sought to quantify Black–White differences in repeated urinary concentrations of phthalate biomarkers during pregnancy and to estimate the extent to which neighborhood‐level social determinants of health (SDoH) mediate these disparities.

Methods

This secondary analysis used data from the Human Placenta Project Study, a prospective observational cohort study conducted at two academic institutions between 2016 and 2018. Eligible participants had singleton pregnancies, were recruited before …

Hungarian Validation Of The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory - 20 (Pfdi-20) Questionnaire And The Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire - 7 (Pfiq - 7), Barbara Kozma, Bence Kozma, Peter Takacs, Dávid Rátonyi, Nelli Farkas, Attila G. Sipos, Balint Farkas

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

Introduction and Hypotheses

Pelvic floor disorders (PFDs) affect women's quality of life through physical, psychological, and social domains. The Pelvic Floor Distress Inventory-20 (PFDI-20) and the Pelvic Floor Impact Questionnaire-7 (PFIQ-7) are validated tools for assessing symptom severity and quality of life impact. The current study aim to investigate the reliability and validity of the Hungarian versions of these questionnaires in women with PFD symptoms.

Methods

This validation study was carried out at the University of Debrecen among women with clinically confirmed pelvic floor disorders. The PFDI-20 and PFIQ-7 questionnaires were translated into Hungarian using independent native English speaker in …

The Impact Of The 7th October War On Preterm Birth Rates And Neonatal Outcomes: A Retrospective Comparative Study From Northern Israel, Raghda Zidan Sweid, Adi Sharabi Nov, Hana Helfgot, Steven L. Warsof, Inbar Ben-Shachar

Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology Faculty Publications

PURPOSE: Maternal psychological stress is associated with adverse obstetric and neonatal outcomes, including preterm birth and low birthweight. Warfare represents a significant source of acute and chronic stress, yet its impact on pregnancy outcomes remains unclear. This study aimed to evaluate the association between a 6-month period of continuous wartime exposure following October 7, 2023, during the "Iron Swords" conflict and preterm birth, neonatal outcomes, and obstetric management.

METHODS: This retrospective cohort study included all deliveries at ZIV Medical Center during the 6-month conflict period, compared with a pre-war cohort from 2021 until October 6, 2023. The primary outcome was …

The American Anomaly: Feasibility Of Universal Healthcare, William Bernstein

Student Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

Guide D’Immersion Français/Francophone Au Connecticut, Isa Amaro Varas

Student Research and Publications

No abstract provided.

17Β Estradiol Protection Against Medium-Change Neurotoxicity In Organotypic Hippocampal Slice Cultures, Autumn B. Stage

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Medium change neurotoxicity can disrupt glutamate homeostasis and promote excitotoxic neuronal injury through excessive NMDA receptor activation. 17β estradiol (E2) has demonstrated neuroprotective effects in models of neuronal injury and may regulate glutamatergic signaling through metabotropic glutamate receptors (mGluR2/3). This study investigated whether E2 protects against medium change associated neurotoxicity in organotypic hippocampal slice cultures whether responses differed by sex or hippocampal region. Hippocampal slices from postnatal day 8 male and female Sprague Dawley rats were maintained in culture and exposed to 1, 10, or 100 nM E2 for 24 hours following a five day recovery period. Propidium iodide (PI) …

The Ability To Resist The Expected Impairing Effects Of Alcohol In Heavy And Light Drinkers, Grace Tomaszewski

University of Kentucky Master's Theses

Alcohol tolerance is defined as a diminished response to the drug owing to repeated alcohol exposures. However, drinkers can compensate for alcohol impairment, particularly when they expect to be impaired in the situation. However, the ability to compensate might depend on the behavior impaired by alcohol and the general tolerance already acquired by the drinker. This study tested the degree to which expecting alcohol impairment would reduce alcohol’s impairing effect on reaction time (RT) and fine motor control in those with heavy and light drinking histories. Light drinkers (n=26) and heavy drinkers (n=28) received a 0.65 g/kg alcohol and performed …

Assessing Positive Digital Experiences: A Spanish Validation Of The Digital Flourishing Scale For Adolescents, Alfredo Zarco-Alpuente, Victor Ciudad Fernández, Jasmina Rosič, Sophie Janicke-Bowles, Tamara Escrivà-Martínez, Paula Samper-García

Communication Faculty Articles and Research

Background: Adolescents are immersed in digital communication, which can benefit or harm their well-being. Digital flourishing captures positive perceptions of this communication-connectedness, authentic self-presentation, positive social comparison, civil participation, and self-control-and how it contributes to well-being. In Spain there is still no validated instrument for adolescents. Method: We adapted and validated the Digital Flourishing Scale for Adolescents (DFSA) for Spanish adolescents. Study 1 involved a pilot survey (n = 13) and cognitive interviews (n = 10) to improve clarity and cultural relevance. Study 2 used a cross-sectional survey (n = 1,786) to examine the DFSA’s latent structure, measurement invariance by …

Participation, Danielle M. Pillet-Shore

Faculty Publications

What does it take to participate in direct, naturally occurring social interaction? Conversation analytic (CA) studies reveal that “participation”—who participates, when, and how—is dynamic and locally, multimodally achieved by the people involved. Particularly in social situations when people are concurrently accessible to one another’s naked senses (Goffman, 1964), co-participation is enabled and performed through embodied and vocal resources including talk, gaze, facial displays, body orientation/posture, proximity, and gestures (e.g., M. H. Goodwin, 1999; C. Goodwin & M. H. Goodwin, 2005; Pillet-Shore, 2010; Sidnell, 2009). Using a multimodal CA lens, this chapter illuminates how “participation” is achieved in real-time, naturally occurring …

Eeg Signatures Of Motor Development In Early Childhood: A Systematic Review, Sonia Khurana, Ashwini Kulkarni, Thomas C. Bulea, Hunter J. Bennett

Rehabilitation Sciences Faculty Publications

Background

Early identification of motor developmental disorders is limited due to lack of objective neural markers that characterize typical neurodevelopmental patterns. This systematic review interprets and synthesizes existing evidence to propose a framework of EEG signatures associated with motor development in children aged 0-5 years, which may help inform future benchmarks for early assessment and intervention.

Methods

Following PRISMA guidelines, we searched published and gray literature across five databases between 2000 and 2025 (registered protocol). Included studies examined EEG during task-based, resting-state, or sleep studies linked to motor milestones, task performance, or standardized motor assessments. Study quality was assessed using …

Lunch Shaming And The Right To Privacy, Ira P. Robbins

Scholarly Articles in Law Reviews & Journals

Lunch shaming is the practice of penalizing students who cannot afford to pay for their meals, resulting in them being denied food, served alternative meals, or publicly identified. The origins of lunch shaming can be traced to the financial pressures faced by school districts that struggle to balance tight budgets with the mandate to provide free or reduced-price meals to eligible students. Despite legislative efforts and advocacy campaigns aimed at mitigating the problems associated with lunch shaming, the practice persists, exacerbated by rising food costs and the expiration of pandemic-era food programs.

Many law journal and other articles have correctly …

A Computational Approach To Graduated Centrifuge Profiles For Partial Gravity Planetary Environments, Cabell W. Jones

Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering Faculty Publications

Missions such as NASA’s Artemis and SpaceX’s Starship aspire towards creating permanent settlements beyond Earth. In order to achieve this goal, it must be considered that the gravity present on planetary surfaces such as the Moon (0.165 g) and Mars (0.378 g) may be insufficient to support human physiology for long term habitation. On near-Earth missions, issues such as muscular atrophy, neuro-ocular changes, cardiopulmonary variations, and bone mineral density loss have been observed proportional to the duration spent in microgravity. Further studies have suggested that the severity of these conditions scales linearly with decreasing gravity, meaning that astronaut health can …

More Than A Seat At The Table: Examining How Psychological Safety, Identity Representation, And Leadership Accountability Impact African American Women In Global Workplace Environments, Shelbi Chandler

Theses and Dissertations

This qualitative phenomenological study examined the lived experiences of African American women working in corporate technology environments, with particular attention to psychological safety, representation, and systemic barriers to advancement. Despite increased organizational commitments to equity and inclusion, research continues to demonstrate that Black women encounter persistent intersectional barriers shaped by race and gender within professional settings (Erskine et al., 2021; Field et al., 2023; Roberson, 2019). Guided by Du Bois’s (2008) theory of double consciousness, Goosby Smith’s (2014a) Ubuntic inclusion framework, and appreciative inquiry (AI; Cooperrider & Whitney, 2005), this study explored how African American women interpret, navigate, and respond …

The Effects Of Anxiety On Adult Athletes And Approaches To Improving Performance And Well-Being, Taylor Glaspie-Walton

Theses and Dissertations

This systematic review examined the complex relationship between anxiety and sports performance in adult athletes, along with exploring effective approaches for enhancing both performance and psychological well-being. Through analysis of 18 studies spanning diverse sports and competitive levels, this research identifies key factors that influence anxiety responses and performance outcomes. Findings revealed that competition level, performance-goal discrepancies, and injury recovery significantly impact anxiety levels, with athletes' interpretations of anxiety symptoms proving more influential than symptom intensity alone. The research demonstrates that mental toughness and self-efficacy function as fundamental psychological resources, though their impact appears to plateau at elite competitive levels. …