University of Massachusetts Boston
University of Massachusetts Boston: ScholarWorks at UMassNot a member yet
8618 research outputs found
Sort by
Information Processing In Quantum Thermodynamic Systems
No full textThis thesis extends the classical autonomous Hamiltonian framework of information thermodynamics to the quantum regime. In this formulation, a composite system consisting of a principal system, a heat bath, a memory, and a work source is described by fully quantum, time-independent Hamiltonian dynamics. By introducing the quantum speed limit (QSL) for the system and memory subsystems, referred to as the Quantum Thermodynamic Speed Limit (QTSL), I establish a connection between the QTSL and Landauer’s principle. This relationship reveals the fundamental constraints on quantum information processing in terms of dynamics and energy costs during the evolution. Furthermore, I present an interpretation of the QTSL within the framework of quantum hypothesis testing
Nantucket Eelgrass Management Plan
No full textEelgrass is a critical component of our coastal ecosystem, supporting marine biodiversity, improving water quality, and helping to stabilize the shoreline. This planning effort aims to support the long-term health and sustainability of eelgrass habitats in our local waters.
Eelgrass (Zostera marina L.) is a subtidal seagrass found on both the east and west coasts of North America. Over the last 40 years, eelgrass has declined worldwide as a result of increased turbidity, algal blooms, physical disturbances, disease, and a host of other stressors. Specifically, in Massachusetts, the eelgrass population has declined approximately 50% in the last 30 years. Historic levels were also much more plentiful until a “wasting disease” caused a 90% die-off of meadows in the 1930s. The decline has also been observed locally, with a loss of 30% of eelgrass in Nantucket waters between 1995 and 2015 and an estimated 2,000 acres remaining.
Understanding the importance of eelgrass to the local ecosystem, history, and social fabric of Nantucket Island, the Town initiated the development of an Eelgrass Management Plan to gather historic and baseline conditions, document stressors to eelgrass, and identify actions to protect, stabilize, and enhance/restore eelgrass. This plan builds on recommendations from the Shellfish Management Plan, the Nantucket and Madaket Harbors Action Plans, and other eelgrass management plans and projects
No Longer Invisible: 2025 Massachusetts Asian and Pacific Islander American (APIA) Community Survey Report
Full text linkThe first Massachusetts Asian Pacific Islander American (APIA) Community Survey gathered opinions from 1,414 APIAs across the state in March 2025 on issues such as economic stability, political engagement, safety and sense of belonging, healthcare access, as well as recent executive actions by the federal administration. The survey was offered in Chinese, Vietnamese, and Khmer languages in addition to English.The resulting data was disaggregated by the three largest APIA subgroups in MA: Chinese, Indian and Vietnamese Americans. Key findings include that housing affordability and cost of living are the top economic concerns for APIAs across Massachusetts; both citizens and non-citizens have a high level of political and civic engagement; and those with a weaker sense of belonging in American society were three times more likely to report experiencing discrimination. The survey revealed strong opposition to both ending birthright citizenship and diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.
The study was a collaborative effort led by the Institute for Asian American Studies at UMass Boston and the Massachusetts Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission and partnering with the Asian and Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network, the Asian Community Fund, The Boston Foundation and MassINC Polling Group
Promising Beginnings
No full textRohan Dias\u27 thesis begins with a story, The Journal of Sayantan Sen, presented as the transcription of the journal of the posthumously infamous Bengali painter, Sayantan Sen, discovered in 1937 by one W.A. Barker, a British explorer who found the mss on the jungle floor of one of the Andaman Islands off the coast of Burma. Notebook is the story of Zanzibar, a florist with a crush on Lara whose husband Hussain is lying in a coma in a hospital. Fun at a Funeral opens with Joyce learning that her mother has been pronounced dead. The story then follows the dead woman\u27s family who seem determined to anaesthetize themselves with drink and hash as a way of avoiding feeling any genuine grief. Eye of the Beholder brings us to an exhibit of photographs by the cult director known as Zedd. A Conversation Between Lovers relies on Dias\u27 characteristic and almost unintentionally revealing humor
Implementation of a Multi-Modal Labor Coping Pathway to Reduce Unplanned Intrapartum Transfers from Community Setting to Hospital
Full text linkBackground
Homebirth and birth center midwives aspire to avoid unplanned transfers to hospital. Inadequate coping with the pain of labor increases the need for transfer from community birth to hospital. However when the laboring person determines that she cannot cope with the pain, escalation of care for pain management may be needed. Transfer from the community setting to the hospital for escalation of pain management can be a challenge for the laboring woman, the birth center labor team, and the receiving hospital.
Local Problem
In St. Lawrence County, New York, there is one freestanding birth center. The current transfer rate due to requests for traditional pharmacologic pain medicine is 22%, which is below the national rate (26%) but unacceptably high. Prior to this project, the birth center did not have a comprehensive, multi-modal labor pain management protocol.
Methods
Effective interventions for labor coping/pain management were identified in a systematic review of the literature. An evidence-based algorithm to assess coping and improve patients\u27 perception of pain emerged as an effective strategy. The Biopsychosocial Model of Health was used to develop a novel pathway for implementing labor pain coping strategies.
Intervention
A multi-modal labor coping pathway (LCP) was developed based on best practices described in the literature. A workshop was conducted with the labor team to educate them on the LCP. The modalities/options on the LCP were reviewed with each patient during prenatal visits and a birth plan was developed for the patient via shared decision making. The individualized birth plan was initiated for every patient admitted to the birth center for labor over a period of five months and data was gathered regarding timing and efficacy of the interventions.
Results
Most patients completed a birth plan in advance of admission to the unit (88%, n=64) and birth center staff successfully implemented the pathway (%) when the patient’s self-reported coping exceeded the threshold. Post-intervention compared to pre-intervention unintended transfer rates for escalation of pain management were reduced by 65%.
Conclusion
The project met and exceeded the project goals. Patients responded favorably to the birth plans and post-birth surveys, and Potsdam Birth House staff unanimously agreed that the LCP should be adopted as policy from this point forward. Additional PDSA cycles may be warranted in the future to identify if certain modalities were more effective than others , and if some enhanced coping strategies worked better at one stage of labor than another
A Community-Engaged, Mixed-Methods Analysis of Experiences with Mental Health Services
No full text(Note: For Embargo
Suicidal Thoughts, Racial-gendered Discrimination, and Post-traumatic Sequelae: Ecological Momentary Assessment of the Discrimination and Trauma Suicide Risk Network within a TNGE BIPOC Community Sample
No full textHigh rates of suicidal thoughts and behaviors (STBs) are an urgent issue among transgender, nonbinary, and gender-expansive (TNGE) Black, Indigenous, and other People of Color (BIPOC) that require scientific study to identify effective interventions that lower suicide risk. Despite extant literature detailing the intersection of trauma and discrimination as a unique vulnerability, scientific analyses of discrimination-related suicidal states among TNGE BIPOC remain limited. This study examined the relationship between exposure to racial-gendered discrimination, trauma symptoms from discrimination, risk factors, protective factors, and suicidal ideation within a sample of TNGE BIPOC (n = 27) using an ecological momentary assessment design. Results indicate significant variability across suicidal ideation variables per Interclass Correlation Coefficients (ICC), Root Mean Square of Successive Differences (RMSSD), as well as intensity and severity descriptive statistics. In their respective models, both racial-gendered discrimination and post-traumatic stress concurrently and prospectively predicted increases in suicidal ideation at statistically significant levels. However, in the integrated model between racial-gendered discrimination and post-traumatic stress, only post-traumatic stress predicted suicidal ideation at statistically significant levels concurrently and prospectively. As a whole, findings provide further evidence regarding the short-term variability of key variables (i.e. suicidal ideation, racial-gendered discrimination, and post-traumatic stress) and the saliency of discrimination and trauma as a unique suicide risk network
THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF RESILIENCE AND THE MODERATION EFFECT OF HOSPITAL MAGNET STATUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PRACTICE ENVIRONMENT AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS AMONG ACUTE CARE NURSES
Full text linkABSTRACT
THE MEDIATION EFFECT OF RESILIENCE AND THE MODERATION EFFECT OF HOSPITAL MAGNET STATUS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE PRACTICE ENVIRONMENT AND TURNOVER INTENTIONS AMONG ACUTE CARE NURSES
May 2025
Elizabeth Helena Fraser, B.S.N., Elms College
M.S.N., Emmanuel College
Ph.D., University of Massachusetts Boston
Directed by Professor Sun S. Kim
The U.S. healthcare system has long suffered a critical nursing shortage, intensified since the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) outbreak. The shortage is a complex national crisis compounded by the high turnover of qualified nurses. Turnover is when a nurse leaves an organization for another nursing position or leaves the profession and needs to be replaced. Turnover rate for hospital bedside nurses in 2018 was 15.9%, which rose to 18.4% in 2023. The supply of registered nurses is influenced by retirement, the recruitment of new nurses, and the retention of existing nurses. The importance of retaining competent acute care nurses is the first step to alleviating the nursing shortage. It has been suggested that resilience may play a critical role in acute care nurses’ decision to leave or stay. However, not much is known about what personal and environmental factors are associated with resilience and how the relationships affect turnover intention. The purpose of this study was to examine the mediating effect of resilience on the relationship between the practice environment and turnover intentions and to assess the moderating role of hospital Magnet status on the relationship between practice environment and turnover intentions in acute care nurses post-COVID-19 pandemic. A cross-sectional survey was conducted between October 2023 and April 2024, using four instruments (Practice Environment Scale- Nursing Work Index, Workplace Resilience Scale, Maslach Burnout Inventory-Human Service Survey, and Anticipated Turnover Scale). A total of 240 acute care nurses, a combination of random and convenience samples, participated in this study. The mediation effect was analyzed using Hayes’ PROCESS macro in SPSS version 28.0. Results revealed that the hypothesized mediation and moderation effects were not supported. However, multiple regression analyses indicated that the greatest significant contributor to turnover intentions was emotional exhaustion (i.e., burnout, B =0.04, p B = -0.76, p B = -19.89, p B = 9.81, p =.015, 95% CI = 1.89, 17.73) between the practice environment and turnover intentions. The negative effects of the practice environment on emotional exhaustion and turnover intentions were stronger for nurses with lower levels of resilience. The model with three predictors (practice environment, emotional exhaustion, and resilience) explained 31% of the variance in turnover intention
Beyond a Single Story: A Transdisciplinary Study Contextualizing Host Families\u27 Lifeworlds in a University Swahili Homestay Program in Tanzania
No full textThe purpose of this qualitative study was to explore homestay participation through the lens of hosts’ lifeworlds in a university Swahili homestay program in Tanzania. Primarily, the aim was to examine the extent to which hosts negotiate, interpret, and make meaning of homestay participation through host–student interactions as they engage with foreign college students from primarily Euro-American backgrounds. In light of the citizen diplomacy efforts in global education to foster mutual understanding through language and cultural learning programs, both foreign college student sojourners and host families are impacted by cross-cultural interactions. Empirical studies have highlighted the need for more research into host participation based on two knowledge gaps within the homestay: (a) hosts lived experiences and perspectives in the homestay environment as part of foreign language learning abroad literature, and (b) a limited understanding of homestay participation featuring hosts’ livelihoods in less commonly taught language (LCTL) communities in nontraditional destination (NTD) contexts. To move beyond dominant Euro-American discourses on host family narratives, this study combines the two domains to provide empirical data by emphasizing the importance of contextualized discourses and centering host family voices in an East African context. This exploratory study employed phenomenological inquiry and grounded theory analysis techniques to examine host family experiences and perspectives. For the conceptual framework, a transdisciplinary lens was applied drawing from Adichie’s The Danger of a Single Story with support from relevant theoretical underpinnings of situated learning, communities of practice (CoP), and legitimate peripheral participation (LPP) to substantiate hosts’ narratives. Based on multiple semi-structured interviews conducted with eight host families and one program coordinator over a year, findings led to three primary themes of hosts’ motivations, benefits, and challenges. The overarching theme of relational linkages was also identified as central to host families’ livelihoods as they navigated their roles and responsibilities within the homestay and in their communities. A multilayered approach to engagement fostered mutual support and learning beyond program parameters among stakeholders on four levels: between hosts, hosts’ children, foreign students, and neighbors and the surrounding community. Furthermore, findings uncovered local knowledge bases expressed through oral genre as symbolic resources to mediate teaching and learning experiences through Swahili storytelling, proverbs, songs, and other axioms to convey metaphorical lessons embedded in daily life and within the homestay. The primary theoretical contribution of this study was an emergent contextually-grounded theoretical description of an explanatory framework. A transdisciplinary relational linkages framework: The homestay as a learning community of practice describes hosts’ contextualized practices and the underlying processes of homestay engagement in Mwenyeji. Ultimately, the lifeworlds of Tanzanian host families can help broaden stakeholders’ understanding of diverse ideologies, worldviews, and practices across various linguistic and geographical contexts. This study has important implications to help inform theory, policy, and best practices and determine how Tanzanian hosts can be better supported and meaningfully involved through the co-construction of knowledge sharing in future program planning, design, and development