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EXAMINING A CULTURALLY INFORMED MODEL OF MENTAL HEALTH CARE UTILIZATION AMONG LATINX COLLEGE STUDENTS
No full textDespite an elevated risk of mental health concerns among Latinx college students due to the unique stressors and challenges Latinx college students may face, including discrimination, cultural isolation, lack of representation, and low educational expectations, Latinx college students tend to underutilize mental health services. The behavioral model of health services utilization (BMHSU) has often been utilized to examine the individual characteristics that predispose individuals to use or not use health services, environmental factors that enable or impede health service use, and one’s need for health services as determined by symptoms, provider’s diagnoses, or other illness indicators. However, the BMHSU has been criticized for failing to consider the influence of specific cultural factors, and as such, may not fully account for disparities in mental health care utilization. The purpose of this study was to develop and examine a cultural adaptation of the BMHSU by including indicators of acculturation and related variables at each level (e.g., predisposing, enabling, and need factors) in hopes of creating a culturally informed model of mental health care utilization more applicable to Latinxs. The total sample was comprised of 126 Latinx undergraduate students, the majority of which were bilingual, second-generation immigrants of Catholic background. Results indicated that the culturally informed model of mental health care utilization more than doubled the predictive power of the BMHSU, accounting for 54% of the variance in utilization, whereas the traditional BMHSU only accounted for 24% of the variance in MHC utilization. Analysis of individual predictors revealed that mental health stigma and familism make help seeking behavior less likely. Meanwhile greater congruence between an individual’s perceived need for mental health care and a professional’s evaluation of need was found to promote help seeking behavior. Historically, cultural factors, including ethnic identity and familism, have been assumed to uniformly promote health and well-being among Latinxs, while acculturative stress and cultural beliefs such as machismo, have been associated with psychopathology. Findings of the current study emphasize the need to further understand the contexts in which cultural factors might be protective or function as a risk factor when tailoring research studies, and interventions that stem from such studies to Latinx populations
CRNA Perceptions of a Quick Reference Guide for Aspiration Pneumonitis in Clinical Practice: A DNP Project
No full textAspiration pneumonitis is a rare but serious perioperative complication; timely recognition and effective management are essential for keeping patients safe during the administration of anesthesia. The purpose of this DNP project was to evaluate CRNAs’ perceptions of a Quick Reference Guide (QRG) designed to support the prevention, recognition, and treatment of aspiration pneumonitis in the perioperative setting. A pre-implementation survey, PowerPoint presentation, distribution of the QRG, and two-week implementation period were conducted at two rural hospitals, followed by a post-implementation survey. Three CRNAs from one of two facilities completed both surveys. Results appeared to increase confidence in managing perioperative aspiration, particularly regarding guideline adherence for aspiration risk factors and withholding GLP-1 medications. Limitations of the project included a small sample size of three participants, potential bias from self-reported surveys, and a short implementation period of two weeks. Despite these constraints, the project results suggest that the QRG may be a valuable reference tool to reinforce evidence-based practice and support real-time decision-making in the event of an emergency. Future projects should consider expanding implementation to larger and more diverse anesthesia groups, incorporate longer evaluation periods, and provide formal training opportunities, such as gastric ultrasound education, to strengthen provider preparedness and improve patient safety outcomes.D.N.P
IMPROVING MULTI-VARIATE TIME SERIES FORECASTING WITH DYNAMIC MULTI-HEAD ATTENTION ADJACENCY MATRIX
Get PDFTime series data is prevalent in many fields, such as finance, weather forecasting, and economics. Predicting future values of a time series can offer valuable insights for decision-making, such as identifying trends, detecting anomalies, and improving resource allocation. Existing research, including neural network-based models and transformer-based models, has demonstrated high performance in learning temporal information. However, capturing spatial information within time series data remains a significant challenge. In this project, we explored whether the attention mechanism can be effectively integrated into non-transformer-based models to enhance their ability to learn spatial information.
To achieve this goal, we propose a novel framework that uses a dynamically learned adjacency matrix based on related work called the Multi-variate Time-series Graph Neural Network(MTGNN).
Instead of using a correlation-based learned adjacency matrix, the adjacency matrix and graph modules are replaced with a dynamically learned adjacency matrix with multi-attention. This framework shows that a dynamically learned attention adjacency matrix can perform as well as other frameworks when learning spatial information
ADDRESSING CAREER READINESS: EXPLORING THE CAREER PREPAREDNESS AND CAREER SERVICES UTILIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AND HISPANIC STUDENTS
Get PDFStacia Smith Solomon, ADDRESSING CAREER READINESS: EXPLORING THE CAREER PREPAREDNESS AND CAREER SERVICES UTILIZATION OF AFRICAN AMERICAN AND HISPANIC STUDENTS (Under the Direction of Dr. David Siegel). Department of Educational Leadership, May, 2025.
Career outcomes for African American and Hispanic populations differ significantly from those of their White and Asian peers. Data show that recent college graduates from African American and Hispanic backgrounds earn lower salaries and secure full-time employment at lower rates than White and Asian graduates within six months of graduation. Furthermore, career services utilization data highlight a notable gap: African American and Hispanic students engage with these services at rates disproportionate to their enrollment, unlike their White and Asian counterparts, whose utilization more closely mirrors their representation. Limited research exists on the relationship between career services utilization, career preparation, and their impact on career outcomes for African American and Hispanic college students, particularly outside industry-specific contexts.
This study investigates the career preparedness and career services utilization of 10 African American and Hispanic students attending a private, historically White institution. Qualitative findings illuminate how these students navigate career preparation, including the factors that impact their engagement with career services. Using Yosso’s Community Cultural Wealth framework and Social Cognitive Career Theory, this study examines the behaviors, perceptions, and patterns shaping career preparedness and career services utilization, providing deeper insight into the factors impacting career outcomes for African American and Hispanic students
An Examination of Variability in Dental Development Across the State of North Carolina
No full textContemporary research suggests that dental development is biologically stable across human populations. However, research examining trends in dental developmental variation tends to focus on broad population trends and often lacks nuanced information about small-scale relationships at the city and community level. As a result, these studies may gloss over localized genetic and/or environmental trends that may influence variation in dental development. Addressing this gap, tooth mineralization scores were collected from dental radiographs associated with subadult individuals (6–16 years of age) from Community Service Learning Centers (CSLC) affiliated with the East Carolina University School of Dental Medicine (SoDM) with a total sample size of n = 976. The CSLC locations are geographically and demographically diverse and include populations across North Carolina, such as Ahoskie, Lumberton (Robeson County), Ross Hall (Greenville, NC), Spruce Pine, and Sylva. Results were compared against previously published research associated with the Subadult Virtual Anthropology Database (SVAD) and contextualized within demographic factors such as geographic location, biological sex, self-described race, and ethnicity. The results demonstrate that the timing of tooth mineralization is similar across North Carolina regardless of geography or demographic composition. CSLC Sylva shows a high degree of delay in mineralization timing for age with most teeth scoring below their counterparts across North Carolina and within the SVAD sample. This delay is most severe during root development and may be a product of local environmental factors in western North Carolina (CSLC Sylva). Early forming teeth notably exhibit more extreme degrees of delay compared to their later forming counterparts. The results do corroborate the stability shown in previous research, but also capture the variation that may be missed when pooling samples by broad geographic or environmental categories
DO PATTERNS MATTER? TESTING THE SPANISH COLONIAL PATTERN AT CHARLES TOWNE, NORTH CAROLINA
Get PDFIn 1983, Kathleen Deagan defined the Spanish Colonial Pattern from material recovered from early St. Augustine, which was later refined at Puerto Real, Haiti. It states that the Spanish adapted to the Americas by retaining Spanish traits in male-dominated areas of high social visibility, while incorporating Indigenous traits in female dominated utilitarian areas. This thesis
tests the Spanish Colonial Pattern was tested at Charles Towne, North Carolina. The archaeological assemblage revealed little Indigenous presence at the Charles Towne colony, suggesting that the English did not follow similar patterns of colonization
Executive Summary: Improving Patient Comprehension of Atrial Fibrillation Through Visual Education
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Revising Culture History in the North Carolina Coastal Plain: Investigating the Stratigraphic Sequence of the Barber Creek Site (31PT259)
Get PDFBarber Creek (31PT259) is a stratified prehistoric site located on a relict sand dune along the Tar River in eastern North Carolina. Previous analyses have identified multiple occupational components at the site, though the number and character of these occupations vary across studies. This thesis reconstructs the stratigraphic sequence of trenches excavated in 2000 and 2003 to evaluate the site’s stratigraphic and cultural chronology and compare the results to previous investigations. Using artifact frequency distributions, artifact backplots, and refitting studies, this research identifies two distinct occupation zones and a possible third. The earliest occupation is attributed to the Early Archaic period, followed by a tentative Middle to Late Archaic component, and a well-defined Woodland occupation marked by diagnostic ceramic types. The results align with previous analyses but most closely reflect the sequence proposed by McFadden (2009), who also identified Early Archaic and Woodland occupations, and a possible Middle/Late Archaic occupation. This research contributes to the refinement of Coastal Plain culture history and underscores the value of stratified dune sites like Barber Creek for understanding human occupation in the region
Identifying and Applying Sound Design Principles for Multimodal Content Creation: Analyzing Professional Content Creators’ Adobe Instructional Videos
Get PDFIncorporating sounds in multimodal compositions is an essential skill to develop. The subfield of study that involves the rhetoric of sounds has several names, including aural rhetorics, aurality, sonic composition, and sound studies. Instructional videos (i.e., how-to videos) often use sounds—any sounds—to professionally communicate, such as educating non-expert audiences in how-to-do tasks. My research project analyzes several of these types of instructional videos, ones from members of a professional content creator community, Adobe, for principles of multimodal composition and professional communication, with an emphasis on sound usage.
By analyzing what we hear, we make meaning and communicate. It is also important to analyze how people utilize other types of sounds in conjunction with visual and textual elements. This interplay, with the goal of a well-balanced multimodal composition that communicates on a professional level, is where this research study is situated. In this study, I investigate how these Adobe professionals integrate sounds into their works and how audiences might interpret the messages from these sounds. This is “sound design,” which I define as the rhetorical decisions that content creators make about how to use sounds to communicate their goals to their audiences. To inform this set of principles and decisions, I analyze how sounds function rhetorically with the visual and textual elements to create content in a specific setting. The implications of this analysis will inform a set of principles that could be used by content creators.
My primary research question is this: How do members of the professional Adobe-based content creator community rhetorically use the sound design principles from my proposed model in creating multimodal instructional videos? These sound design principles are derived from a mixture of physics-related, musical, and colloquial concepts that intersect across these disciplines and all pertain to sound: volume, speed, clarity, pitch, and modulation. Every component of sound design must be considered on some level, just as visual and textual designs must be crafted with care for composition efficacy. This presentation will report on the results of this sound design analysis that have implications for rhetoric, TPC, multimodal composition, and pedagogy. As multimodal compositions and other types of non-traditional essays become both more prevalent and more popular, I argue that it is important to gain a better understanding of how different modes of communication, particularly aural aspects, function rhetorically in digital environments. The sound design principles function as a tool for teaching how to analyze sounds and as a tool for learning how to analyze sounds in multimodal compositions
IN PURSUIT OF A HUMBLE BEAST: A GEOSPATIAL ANALYSIS FOR THE WHALING FISHERY ON SHACKLEFORD BANKS
Get PDFThe purpose of this thesis is to investigate the spatial relationship between shore whaling activities on Shackleford Banks and the community that undertook them. From the colonial period to the decline of whaling activities at the beginning of the 20th century, North Carolina’s shores were an established hub for the whaling industry of the Atlantic Ocean. Although the Cape Lookout whaling ground did not amass the same offshore productive capacity as New Bedford or Nantucket, Cape Lookout whaling was nonetheless historically pertinent to the establishment of North Carolina’s economy and settlement. To date, relatively little scholarly research has been conducted into the spatial relationship between the shore whaling activities of Shackleford Banks and the communities that undertook it. By interpreting the results of a geospatial analysis and comparing it to historical sources, sites optimal for whaling activities on Shackleford Banks may come to light