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The Mediterranean Diet & Heart Disease: Measuring Knowledge Through Provider Education
No full textBackground
The diagnosis of heart disease is a rapidly growing diagnosis within the United States (American Heart Association [AHA], 2023). Heart disease development secondary to inflammatory processes has become a growing concern as this diagnosis continues to increase amongst adults (Tristan et al., 2023). The effectiveness of anti-inflammatory diets, specifically the Mediterranean Diet (MD), in alleviating symptoms of heart disease has been demonstrated (Bawaked et al., 2017). Delivering MD education to healthcare providers through an educational intervention is a practical educational intervention that can be employed to offer providers a reference point to enhance treatment outcomes. The purpose of this project was to implement an
evidence-based educational intervention to provide MD education to primary care providers, and measure the efficacy of the intervention by testing knowledge before and after completion.
Methods
Five primary care healthcare providers received the educational intervention. Pre- and post-tests were used to collect data. Descriptive statistics were used to analyze the data. Percentages were computed for both the pre and post-test responses.
Results
The computed percentages from the pre and posttest responses were compared to identify changes in knowledge after completion of the educational intervention. After analysis of the participants responses, an increase in knowledge was illustrated through positive trends in the data.
Conclusion
An evidence-based educational intervention shows promise as an effective method of educating primary care providers and increasing knowledge on the MD. Further implementation must be executed to better understand the efficacy of the intervention.
Keywords: chronic inflammation, anti-inflammatory diets, chronic illness, chronic illness and diet, relationship between diet and inflammationDoctor of Nursing Practice, Family Nurse Practione
MODERATING EFFECTS OF AUTISTIC TRAITS ON THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN PARENTING AND CHILD EMOTIONAL REGULATION
No full textEmotional regulation in early childhood is crucial for social-emotional competence and academic success. While parenting plays a role in developing these skills, the bidirectional relationships between parenting behavior and emotional regulation over time, particularly involving fathers and neurodivergent children, remain underexplored. This study examined parent-driven and child-driven effects between parenting (warmth, laxness, and overreactivity) and child emotional regulation across four time points in 143 children (52.4% female) from age 3 to 6, with child gender and family income as covariates. Using four-wave random intercept cross-lagged panel models (RI-CLPM), we conducted separate analyses for mothers and fathers. Baseline results showed that maternal warmth at age 3 positively predicted emotional regulation at age 4, while paternal overreactivity at age 5 negatively predicted emotional regulation at age 6. In moderated models, both parent-driven and child-driven effects emerged, varying by children's autistic traits. Among children with higher autistic traits, parent-driven effects were more pronounced, with maternal warmth at age 3 and maternal laxness at age 4 strongly influencing emotional regulation. Conversely, among children with lower autistic traits, emotional regulation at age 3 strongly predicted increased maternal warmth at age 4. These findings highlight the significance of positive parenting in promoting emotional regulation, especially for children with higher autistic traits. Conversely, they also emphasize the role of strong emotional regulation in encouraging positive parenting, particularly for children with lower autistic traits. This suggests that interventions should aim to enhance both parenting strategies and children's emotional regulation skills.This research was supported by a grant from the National Institutes of Health (MH60132) awarded to E.A.H.Master of Science (M.S.
2025 Research and Design Studio: Reimagining the Southwest Tower Lounges
No full textThis studio considers the role of the built environment in health and wellbeing, which is interrelated with sustainability, resilience, and planetary wellbeing. UMass is a signatory of the Okanagan Charter, which calls on campuses to embed health into all aspects of campus culture, across the administration, operations and academic mandates. This call acknowledges that institutions have a responsibility to lead by providing transformative education, developing new knowledge and understanding, and advocating to decision-makers for the benefit of society.
The studio considers ways to address the academic mandate of the Okanagan Charter by cultivating originalresearch and design work focused on campus settings, and by educating graduates able to advocate for health-promoting built environments. Foregrounding circularity and adaptability, the course considers how existing campus spaces may be adapted to address shifting priorities for contemporary student populations. Working with leaders from UMass’s Campus Life and Wellbeing, we explored the contribution of lounges in Southwest Residence Area towers to student wellbeing and proposed adaptive design strategies. The studio was broken down into several intersecting phases including a seminar comprising readings, case studies, and research, and collaborative work on design proposals, including engagement with residents and campus leaders. There is a strong emphasis on linking the professional and theoretical underpinnings of research-drivenand participatory architectural practice
Implicit Coordination in Sellers' Inflation: How Cost Shocks Facilitate Price Hikes
No full textSupply shocks are now widely recognized as a driver of the recent inflation bout, but the role of firms’ pricing strategies in propagating input cost shocks remains contested. In this paper, we review the state of the academic debate over sellers’ inflation and assess whether, in line with this theory, economy-wide cost shocks have functioned as an implicit coordination mechanism for firms to hike prices. We use a dataset containing 138,962 corporate earnings call transcripts of 4,823 stock-market listed U.S. corporations from the period 2007-Q1 to 2022-Q2 to conduct sentiment analysis via both dictionary-based natural language processing and a large language model approach. We find that large input price shocks (as well as their co-occurrence with supply constraints) correlate with positive sentiments expressed in executives’ statements about cost increases. Qualitative analysis provides further insights into the reasoning behind executives’ optimism regarding their ability to turn an economy-wide cost shock into an opportunity to raise prices and protect or even increase profits
Comparative study of stigma and discrimination among vaccinated and non-vaccinated COVID-19 survivors in Bangladesh
No full textThis study investigates the stigmatized experiences of vaccinated and non-vaccinated COVID-19 survivors in Bangladesh, emphasizing the factors contributing to stigma, the lived realities of stigmatization, and strategies for mitigating discrimination. Employing a qualitative comparative case study approach, the research draws on interviews with 22 survivors (13 non-vaccinated and 9 vaccinated) conducted during two critical phases of the pandemic: July–August 2020 and October 2022–April 2023. The findings reveal that stigma and discrimination were pervasive, stemming from deep-seated fears of death and infection, exacerbated by public health measures such as lockdowns, public announcements, and the symbolic marking of houses with red flags. Experiences surrounding COVID-19 testing further intensified stigma, influencing how survivors were perceived and treated by others. Notably, non-vaccinated survivors reported a broader spectrum of stigmatizing experiences compared to their vaccinated counterparts, highlighting the differential impact of vaccination status on social experiences. Despite these challenges, survivors identified key strategies for alleviating stigma, including robust social support, strengthened community connectivity, normalized attitudes toward COVID-19, and proactive media engagement. As a result, this study offers valuable insights for healthcare professionals and policymakers in Bangladesh, informing the development of effective pandemic management strategies. Additionally, it enhances our understanding of the complex interplay between policy, social perception, and individual experiences in shaping pandemic-related stigma and discrimination, highlighting the critical role of community support and care in addressing these challenges.UMass SOAR Fun
Context Dependence in Perceptual and Preferential Choice
No full textA large body of research in psychology has shown that context can systematically affect choice. These context effects are in violation of classical choice models and are both practically and theoretically interesting. Recent work has demonstrated context effects in simple perceptual choice, findings that suggest that these results are not restricted to high-level (e.g., consumer) choice. This dissertation explores the attraction and repulsion effects, two related context effects, with a particular emphasis on perceptual choice. Chapter 1 introduces the attraction and repulsion effects and reviews the empirical and theoretical literature surrounding them. Chapter 2 tests the ability of perceptual and decisional processes to account for these effects via a Thurstonian choice model. Chapter 3 uses this model to make predictions for best-worst choice and tests them empirically. Chapter 4 generalizes the Thurstonian model and experimental paradigm from Chapter 2 to consumer choice. Chapter 5 tests the idea that an effect similar to that of Chapter 2 can be generated through ease of inter-option comparability in perceptual choice. Chapter 6 summarizes and discusses these results.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
IDENTIFYING UNIVERSAL FEATURES AND PRINCIPLES WITHIN THE STRING AND QUANTUM GRAVITY LANDSCAPES
No full textThis thesis investigate string theory and quantum gravity, and aims to connect these topics with phenomenology, quantum field theory, and black hole physics. This document is based on the papers I have coauthored in my PhD. This thesis bounds the order-one coefficients in the Distance Conjecture of Ooguri and Vafa, generalizes this conjecture to involve branes, presents novel relationships between moduli space geometry and brane tensions, and explores how derivative operators affect black holes. This thesis also uncovers relationships between the Weak Gravity Conjecture and confinement, and shows that sharpened Swampland Conjectures suggest that heterotic string theory may have novel and non-BPS branes. This thesis also predicts novel generalized global 1-form symmetries of 4d N = 3 QFTs. This thesis also investigates various aspects of black holes and thermodynamics.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
The False Promises of Gods
No full textA collection of short stories exploring Indian folklore and myth.Master of Fine Arts (M.F.A.)2030-09-0
The Political Economy of Greenbackism and Race in Texas, 1876-1878
No full textMy dissertation revolves around a case study of Greenbackism – a nationwide third-party movement of the 1870s which agitated for monetary and financial reform. I examine the efforts of the Greenback party to build an interracial coalition of voters in post-Reconstruction Texas. I use my case study to intervene in current debates on the potential for interracial coalition-building in the United States.
In my first chapter, I examine the changing context of the Greenback insurgency in Texas with respect to agriculture, finance, and transportation. I find the Greenback insurgency was marked by a process of commercialization – i.e., the intensification of cotton production – within agriculture. Crucially, I show agriculturalists cultivated the cash crop under disparate property and credit relations. With newly collected individual-level data, I provide fresh understanding of the disparate effects of postbellum economic change on Texans by race and class.
In my second chapter, I examine the Texas Greenback party’s coalition and its formation at the height of the party’s prominence in the state – the 1878 gubernatorial election. I find the Greenback party’s coalition was interracial. I show both white and black Texans played active and leading roles in the Greenback insurgency, taking part in an ambitious grassroots campaign to build interracial support for the party. Without discounting their efforts, I contend the Greenback party’s coalition was underpinned and curtailed by the contradictions of the prevailing property relations and major party coalitions. With new archival evidence and newly constructed sub-county dataset, I perform a novel and fine-grained analysis of Greenback party voting and offer a novel interpretation of the formation of the Greenback party’s coalition.
In my third chapter, I engage cutting edge theory in the economics of race and racism which doubts the possibility of interracial coalitions – stratification economics’ theory of intergroup competition. Leveraging the findings of my case study, I contend the assumptions of intergroup competition need to be reconsidered to advance scholarship on racial inequality and the cause of egalitarianism. I demonstrate the need for renewed scholarship on race and capitalism within stratification economics and offer an example for inquiry into the political economy of race.Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.
