University of North Carolina at Greensboro
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Parent's perceptions of language proficiency in their bilingual children
Full text linkAlthough language proficiency in bilingual children is often viewed as delayed, it is not ethically correct to compare language development in monolingual children to language development in bilingual children (Fleischman et al, 2010; Prevoo et al., 2016; Fernandez & Inserra, 2013). Research shows there are various factors that contribute to a bilingual child’s level of language proficiency in each language a child is exposed to and educated in; however, the research on parental perspectives of language development and resulting proficiency in bilingual children is limited. This study investigated the relationship between factors such as early social interactions children engage in, their exposure to child directed speech, their parents’ education, parent/child relationships in relevance to acculturation level and beliefs, and parent perceptions on their bilingual child’s level of language proficiency. An adaptation of the Parents of Bilingual Children Questionnaire, originally developed by Tuller and colleagues following the COST Action IS0804 in several countries, was developed to analyze the relationship between parental perceptions of language proficiency and the factors affecting it. Recruitment occurred through Facebook pages in Western North Carolina, and the survey, available from June 02, 2023, to August 6, 2023, was presented in both English and Spanish. The survey was started by 112 participants, however, despite their initial interest, only 13 completed the survey from beginning to end, posing a challenge on statistical analyses. Therefore, descriptive data from these completions were analyzed. Results supported the existing research regarding the factors that affect parental perceptions on their bilingual child’s level of language proficiency. More specifically, they supported that most bilingual children meet language milestones within the expected ranges for monolingual children; they support the research that frequent use of child directed speech, higher levels of initiation of interactions and one-to-one interactions, and parental beliefs in relevance to acculturation and language-based activities as well as educational involvement all directly affect language proficiency in bilingual children according to parent perspectives. The effects of parental education on a bilingual child’s level of language proficiency, however, could not be confirmed or denied by this study due to the similarities in educational backgrounds within the participants
When prayer is not enough: The mediating role of mental health literacy and stigma for religious individuals' help-seeking attitudes
Full text linkMany individuals who suffer from psychological distress and mental illness experience barriers to seeking help, including an individual’s level of mental health literacy and self-stigma of seeking help. Religious individuals have been observed to hold more negative attitudes towards seeking help, yet there is limited research exploring how mental health literacy (MHL) and self-stigma of seeking help as possible may explain this relationship. This study is aimed to investigate the relationship between religiosity and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help, specifically addressing mental health literacy and self-stigma of seeking help in a serial mediation effects model. A cross-sectional study was conducted involving 278 adults (mean age = 27.47). Participants completed surveys assessing their religiosity, attitudes towards receiving professional psychological services, MHL, and self-stigma of seeking help. Findings revealed a significant negative direct effect of religiosity onto attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help (ß = -0.10, SE = .04, p < .05, 95% CI [-0.18, -0.02]). However, findings also show a positive significant indirect effect of religiosity on attitudes towards seeking professional psychological assistance through the mediators of MHL and self-stigma (ß = .04, BootstrapSE = .01, Bootstrap95% CI [0.01, 0.06]). Whereas individuals reported being more religious were more likely to have more mental health literacy and thus less self-stigma of seeking help. In turn, participants were more likely to have positive attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. The results of this study highlight the intricate relationships between religiosity and attitudes towards seeking professional psychological assistance. Mental health providers should focus on the importance of MHL and self-stigma in their effects of religious individuals’ attitudes towards seeking professional psychological help. Adapting approaches to religious individuals through way of increasing MHL and finding similarities or supplemental benefits of mental health practices in religious individuals’ lives
Beneficial Effects of Oral Carbon Monoxide on Doxorubicin-Induced Cardiotoxicity
Full text linkDoxorubicin and other anthracyclines are crucial cancer treatment drugs. However, they are associated with significant cardiotoxicity, severely affecting patient care and limiting dosage and usage. Previous studies have shown that low carbon monoxide (CO) concentrations protect against doxorubicin toxicity. However, traditional methods of CO delivery pose complex challenges for daily administration, such as dosing and toxicity. To address these challenges, we developed a novel oral liquid drug product containing CO (HBI-002) that can be easily self-administered by patients with cancer undergoing doxorubicin treatment, resulting in CO being delivered through the upper gastrointestinal tract
Enhancing mental health and self-care through student mindfulness training: The case of the University of North Carolina School of Law
Full text linkEducational organizations are being impacted by the growing need for sustained student mental wellness support. Student populations are increasingly diverse and bring varied life experiences, challenges outside of the classroom, and additional stressors to their academic programs. In some educational contexts, such as legal education, the nature and course of study seem to elevate or accentuate some of these needs. Most educators are ill-prepared or unwilling to handle concerns beyond academic instruction and may unknowingly contribute to student stress instead of intervening and mitigating student concerns. In this study, I aimed to address student mental health among those suffering from high levels of stress or anxiety in a legal education setting by improving their stress management, self-compassion, general mental health, and self-care practices. The goal was to teach students mindfulness techniques and appropriate coping skills to benefit them in their course of study and careers
The impact of parenting and personality on mental illness stigma
Full text linkPublic stigma towards people with mental illness is often comprised of incorrect beliefs and stereotypes about dangerousness and social and interpersonal deficits. Past research has examined the impact that one’s personality and upbringing have on the willingness to endorse stigmatizing beliefs. While results have been mixed, low prosocial personality traits (Yuan et al., 2018) and high parental control/overprotectiveness (Zhao et al., 2015) have been shown to predict higher levels of mental illness stigma. Currently, no study has examined potential interaction effects between these factors; it is possible that higher levels of prosocial personality traits may lessen the impact controlling parenting has on mental illness stigma through the facilitation of contact experiences with stigmatized individuals, which commonly contributes to reduced endorsement of stigma (Yuan et al., 2018). It was predicted that controlling parenting would be positively associated with the endorsement of beliefs that mentally ill individuals are dangerous and possess poor social skills, and that this association would be lessened by high prosocial personality traits such as Agreeableness, Extraversion, and Openness. An overall sample of 268 participants between the ages of 18 and 24 were recruited from two separate online platforms and reported on measures of recalled parental overprotectiveness, personality traits, and stigmatizing beliefs. The present findings indicate that none of the interaction effects between parenting and personality were significant. Correlational analyses indicate that high Agreeableness and Openness predict lower perceived dangerousness and low social skills, while Extraversion shows a negative association with perceived poor social skills. Parental overprotectiveness displayed no significant correlations with any stigma measures, while regression models indicated that high parental overcontrol contributes to perceived poor social and interpersonal skills for mentally ill individuals. Exploratory analyses found a significant two-way interaction between gender and Extraversion in determining perceived dangerousness. Implications of these findings are discussed
The relation between parenting strategies, parents' beliefs about children's emotions, and preschoolers' theory-of-mind
Full text linkTheory-of-mind (ToM) describes the ability to understand other's perspectives, thoughts, emotions, and beliefs that may differ from one’s own (Pavarini et al., 2013). A child’s ToM development may be influenced by parenting strategies implemented during childhood (Aminin, 2018; Vinden, 2001). Characteristics such as parental warmth, reasoning, punitive strategies, directiveness, lack of follow through, and the ignoring of misbehavior may all impact a child’s psychosocial skills. Likewise, the way a parent responds to a child’s emotions affects their emotional socialization and relationships with others (Halberstadt et al., 2013). Whether a parent responds with validation or minimization of a child’s emotions may influence the understanding of emotions, which impacts the development of ToM (Pavarini et al., 2013; Pears & Moses, 2003; Perlman et al., 2008). Participants aged three to five years old were recruited from the greater Boston, Massachusetts and Cullowhee, North Carolina areas. Parents of the children completed demographic questions, the Parenting Styles Dimensions Questionnaire, and the Parents’ Beliefs About Children’s Emotions questionnaire to measure parenting style traits and parental views toward children’s emotions (Halberstadt et al., 2013; Robinson et al., 2001). The Not-Own-Belief task is a simple false belief task that asks about a character’s perception of where she thinks she lost her favorite toy. Children were asked where they thought the character would look for her ball, with the location always being the opposite of the children’s initial guesses. The Ice Cream Machine task is a novel ToM task that asks participants to memorize and distinguish characters’ favorite ice cream flavors from their own. ToM was measured using responses to questions that directly opposed children’s favorite ice cream flavors. ToM Performance was not significantly correlated with any of the measured parenting traits, nor was it correlated with parents’ negative beliefs about children’s emotions. Multiple regression was used to assess the ability of each individual parenting trait to predict ToM Performance after controlling for age, and Democratic Participation was found to significantly predict ToM Performance. On the other hand, Negative Parental Views did not significantly predict ToM Performance. An independent samples t test compared ToM Performance for boys and girls; a different model was run for each age group. For three-year-olds, differences in ToM Performance scores were statistically different between genders, with boys performing better on tasks than girls. Interpretations of these results are included in the Discussion, Limitations, and Future Directions chapter of this manuscript
Supporting transgender students in higher education classrooms
Full text linkTrans people make up about 0.53% of the population or more. Many of these individuals, particularly in the higher education classroom setting, do not feel supported and are subject to discrimination and oppression. Many faculty are not up to date on terminology or ways to be trans-inclusive in the classroom. Studies show that professional development can be a useful technique in the learning and development (PD) of faculty in being more trans-inclusive in their classrooms. Utilizing Queer Theory, this disquisition examines faculty at Southeastern Valley Community College and their trans-inclusiveness before and after a PD that was developed based on the Transgender Inclusive Behavior Scale (TIBS) and the experiences of trans graduates of the institution. This research showed an improvement in the TIBS scores after the PD, as well as increased trans-inclusive behaviors in the classroom as a result
Next-generation sequencing and quantitative PCR reveal patterns of co-occurrence in the soils of Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Full text linkNematodes, fungi and bacteria are highly important in the maintenance and ecology of soil communities. Bacteria and fungi are responsible for the breakdown and subsequent transformation of recalcitrant organic matter, such as cellulose and lignin, into biomass that is more readily accessible to other groups of organisms, returning this carbon to circulation. Nematodes are also responsible for a large proportion of nutrient mineralization in soils. Nematodes, while not efficient decomposers themselves, exert top-down influence on bacterial and fungal populations through predation and grazing of biofilms. It has been experimentally demonstrated that nematodes display a preference for certain taxa as food items. Many of these taxa contain members capable of essential biochemical and physical processes, such as nitrogen fixation, dissimilatory metal metabolism or enmeshment of soil particles, implying that nematode food preference may affect the chemical and trophic state of the soils they inhabit, as well as the structural properties of the soil. Bacteria and fungi parasitize or directly predate nematodes in the environment surrounding them in turn. Fungi and bacteria secrete a wide variety of compounds into the surrounding environment to inhibit each other’s growth and gain the upper hand in competition. These interactions perpetuate a nuanced relationship between these three groups. Relationships between soil nematodes, bacteria and fungi were investigated via modern, culture-free methodologies, including next-generation sequencing and qPCR, with data analyses performed using QIIME 2, Cytoscape 3 and CoNet. Inferred co-occurrence networks were used to establish possible ecological roles and relationships in the soils of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. A relationship between a family of filamentous, polymer degrading bacteria, Ktedonobacteraceae, and the fungal genus Mortierella, was uncovered. The nematode genus Filenchus was found to be negatively associated with two groups of bacteria involved in nitrogen metabolism. This information may guide future conservation and management efforts
Antibiotic Stewardship for Patients With Pharyngitis: Implementing the Centor Tool
Full text linkPharyngitis is a common complaint seen in outpatient clinics, and patients are often sent home with antibiotics when not deemed necessary. The Centor clinical tool is an established, but seldom employed, resource to aid providers in decision-making and determining the likelihood of bacterial strep pharyngitis. The purpose of this paper is to describe a project conducted at 3 urgent care centers with a goal to decrease unnecessary testing and inappropriate antibiotic prescribing. The intervention included implementing the Centor scoring tool when evaluating patients with complaints of pharyngitis. Results indicated that as Centor documentation improved, antibiotic rates decreased
A Comparative Analysis of GitHub Contributions Before and After An OSS Based Software Engineering Class
Full text linkThis study presents a comparative analysis of contributions to GitHub by students before and after participating in a Software Engineering class based on Open Source Software (OSS). The primary objective is to understand the influence of formal software engineering education on students’ engagement in OSS projects, as reflected in their GitHub activities. The research addresses two key questions. Firstly, it examines how GitHub contributions change before and after the class. The corresponding hypothesis posits that students’ average GitHub contributions will exhibit a distinct pattern post-class compared to pre-class. Additionally, the study explores the potential association between students’ academic performance in the class and their level of GitHub contributions after the class. The strength and direction of the potential association are quantified using the Spearman correlation coefficient, considering the potential non-linear nature of the data. This analysis uses data from over 1000 students across more than 10 years, encompassing their GitHub contribution data over multiple timeframes and their grades in the class. The study employs a combination of statistical methods, including paired tests and correlation analysis, to explore these dynamics. While causality cannot be established due to the absence of a control group, the findings offer valuable insights into the correlation between academic engagement and practical contributions in the realm of OSS development. This research contributes to the understanding of how theoretical software engineering education might relate to practical application and engagement in real-world projects