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How Does Culture Shapes the Adolescents' Depression
Get PDFFamily communication plays a crucial role in adolescent mental health, but its effects may vary across cultural contexts. This study examined the relationship between Family Communication Patterns (FES), adolescent emotional well-being (PA/NA), and depressive symptoms (PHQ-8) in Chinese (N = 15) and American (N = 15) adolescents using a questionnaire survey. Contrary to the hypothesis, no significant correlations were found between FES scores and either emotional states or depressive symptoms in either cultural group. In the American sample, a trend-level positive correlation between FES and PHQ-8 suggested that certain family dynamics (e.g., conflict, overcontrol) may exacerbate depressive symptoms, but this effect was not statistically significant. Similarly, between-group comparisons revealed no significant differences in FES, PA/NA, or PHQ-8 scores across cultures. These findings challenge the assumption that family communication patterns universally moderate or exacerbate adolescent mental health outcomes. Cultural factors, such as collectivist family values in China and pressure for economic independence in the United States, may moderate the relationship between family communication and mental health. Future studies should employ culturally sensitive measurement tools, longitudinal designs, and clinical samples to further investigate the role of family dynamics in adolescent mental health and avoid sample limitations.Bachelor of Scienc
Disparities in Inpatient Postpartum Pain Assessment and Management: A Cross-Sectional Cohort Analysis at the North Carolina Women’s Hospital
Get PDFBackground: Racial and ethnic disparities in postpartum pain care are well-documented, yet the way they manifest at the level of inpatient care delivery remains underexplored. This study examines the frequency, quality, and initiation of inpatient postpartum pain assessment and management by race/ethnicity, language, and delivery type.
Methods: A cross-sectional cohort analysis was conducted using 160 hours of naturalistic video and audio recordings of 15 postpartum patient dyads at a single academic hospital. Deductive quantitative and inductive thematic coding were employed to quantify and characterize pain-related interactions, with stratification by patient demographics and birth type.
Results: Black and Hispanic patients experience less and poorer quality pain assessment than Non-Hispanic White patients. Hispanic patients experience less pain management, and Black and Hispanic patients experience poorer quality pain management than White patients. Non-Hispanic White patients were prescribed less opioid medication and more coping strategies than Black and Hispanic patients. Themes in pain assessment characterization included self-advocacy, numerical pain rating scale use, depth of discussion, and language barriers. Themes in pain management characterization included self-advocacy, miscommunication around management options, language barriers, and health care team additions to management discussions.
Conclusions: Disparities in inpatient postpartum pain care are influenced by language barriers, communication gaps, and uneven provider engagement. Standardized protocols promoting inclusive communication, effective use of pain scales, and improved interpreter services are critical for equitable postpartum care.Bachelor of Science in Public Healt
Leveraging Social Determinants of Health in Alzheimer's Research Using LLM-Augmented Literature Mining and Knowledge Graphs.
Get PDFGrowing evidence suggests that social determinants of health (SDoH), a set of nonmedical factors, affect individuals' risks of developing Alzheimer's disease (AD) and related dementias. Nevertheless, the etiological mechanisms underlying such relationships remain largely unclear, mainly due to difficulties in collecting relevant information. This study presents a novel, automated framework that leverages recent advancements of large language model (LLM) and natural language processing techniques to mine SDoH knowledge from extensive literature and integrate it with AD-related biological entities extracted from the general-purpose knowledge graph PrimeKG. Utilizing graph neural networks, we performed link prediction tasks to evaluate the resultant SDoH-augmented knowledge graph. Our framework shows promise for enhancing knowledge discovery in AD and can be generalized to other SDoH-related research areas, offering a new tool for exploring the impact of social determinants on health outcomes. Our code is available at: https://github.com/hwq0726/SDoHenPKG
Throwing Away the Umbrella: Judicial Decision Making and the Evolution of Preclearance in the Voting Rights Act of 1965
Get PDFOften noted as one of the most influential pieces of legislation in American history, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA) has been immensely effective in helping millions carry out their constitutional right to vote. However, in 2013 the Supreme Court drastically weakened the Act by ruling Section 4(b) unconstitutional in Shelby County v. Holder. More than a decade post-Shelby, this investigation seeks to unveil the driving motivations for judicial decisions on preclearance during the provision’s lifetime. Through a case study analysis of four different Supreme Court cases ranging from 1966-2013, this project assesses the key factors informing the decision making of the justices in the context of Section 5 preclearance. It ultimately concludes that mode of constitutional or statutory interpretation is the most reliable internal factor, while partisanship is the most reliable external factor. Adherence to court precedent (stare decisis) is a significant internal factor, but the influence of public opinion and amicus briefs as external factors is minimal. Even though the likelihood of a preclearance revival in the next four years is low, in the event a new coverage formula is reintroduced, adopted, and relitigated, this investigation will offer vital insights into the Court’s decision-making methods. Bachelor of Art
Understanding the Epigenetic Risk of Adverse Post-traumatic Neuropsychiatric Sequelae Through Interpretable Ultrahigh-dimensional Data Analysis
Get PDFBackground: This study aims to build predictive models that identify epigenetic markers associated with pain and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) outcomes at 3 months post-trauma.
Methods: Data from 690 trauma survivors in the AURORA study were analyzed. Predictive models were subsequently built using logistic LASSO regression, random forest, and XGBoost algorithms. In order to assess the added value of CpG methylation data, we generated models with only baseline covariates as predictors and no methylation data. We then developed models using CpG methylation both with and without the inclusion of additional baseline covariates to evaluate the impact of such variables on predictive performance. After each model was developed, feature importance techniques were employed to promote interpretability, and genetic pathway analysis was implemented.
Results: The addition of CpG methylation improved performance across all models. The optimal prediction of both pain and PTSD using CpG methylation and additional baseline covariates, was achieved using logistic LASSO regression (Pain: Accuracy=0.85(95% Confidence Interval (CI): 0.77, 0.91), AUC=0.93; PTSD: Accuracy=0.81(95% CI: 0.73, 0.87), AUC= 0.89). In contrast, the non-linear algorithms demonstrated superior performance in models using only CpG methylation (without additional baseline covariates), with random forest providing the best prediction for pain (Accuracy=0.72(95% CI: 0.63, 0.79), AUC=0.79) and XGBoost yielding the best prediction for PTSD (Accuracy=0.79(95% CI: 0.70, 0.85), AUC=0.85).
Conclusion: This study demonstrates the potential of CpG methylation markers in predicting 3-month pain and PTSD outcomes among trauma survivors. Future research should focus on validating these predictive models in independent, external cohorts to assess their generalizability and robustness.Bachelor of Science in Public Healt
The Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC): How Childhood Exposure Shapes Adult Outcomes
Get PDFThe Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) is one of the most significant anti-poverty programs in the United States, designed to support low-income working families. Previous research demonstrates an overwhelming amount of evidence for the short-term effects of EITC on its recipients, but the long-term effects on children who grew up in EITC-eligible households remain mostly unexplored. The purpose of this study is to analyze the relationship between EITC exposure and adult labor outcomes. Using the Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), this research uses two-way fixed effects models and a Heckman Two-Step selection model to empirically investigate this relationship. Our results show that greater exposure to EITC during childhood is associated with higher adult earnings and increased likelihood of employment. These findings suggest that the EITC not only provides benefits to its direct recipients, but also indirectly benefits the next generation.Bachelor of Scienc
Estimation and Analysis of Consumer Demand for Intrastate Audio Incarcerated Peoples’ Communication Services in Southern U.S. Jails
Get PDFI aim to better understand the mechanisms in the United States (U.S.) incarcerated people’s communication services market (IPCS), beginning with consumer demand. Understanding demand for IPCS from incarcerated people is important as it informs the auction mechanism in which IPCS contract terms are determined. I begin by utilizing data from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) 2019 Census of Jails to study differences in realized demand and pricing across jail types. Then, I utilize novel data gathered and compiled from the Federal Communications Commission’s (FCC) Electronic Comment Filing System (ECFS) within a joint structural equation modeling (SEM) framework to estimate a consumer demand function forIPCS services in U.S. jails. Finally, I end with an examination of a variety of counterfactual regulation schemes and their welfare implications.Bachelor of Scienc
Of Thought and Poetry: Creative Encounters With the Life of Alan Brilliant
Get PDFA collection of essays about the life and work of Alan Brilliant, a poet, publisher, and bookseller who spent the better part of his 86 years of life dedicated to the written word. I started working for Al as a high school freshman in 2018 at Glenwood Community Books, his academic bookshop, and we stayed friends until his death in 2022. During the four years I knew him, Al shaped the way I see the world, creativity, and myself. These essays detail portions of Al's life, especially as a founder of Unicorn Press, and explore ideas of memory, preservation, and the longevity of creativity.Bachelor of Art
Developing a Household Intervention to Mitigate Food Waste Using Design Thinking
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to use human-centered design methodology to define the top drivers of household-level food waste and co-design interventions to prevent household food waste. We used qualitative data from four human-centered design thinking workshops to outline the journey of food through the household-level food system. Through two rounds of individual interviews (n=10) and two rounds of focus group interviews, we constructed food system journey maps and designed three solution sets. Factors contributing to food waste included household inventory management, storage issues and uncertainty about using leftovers, acquiring too much food, and pickiness. Differences in household structures highlighted distinctions in the drivers of food waste. Singles and couples were more likely to have flexibility in their ability/decision to eat out. Multigenerational homes and families with young kids differed in their approaches to serving sizes and leftovers with variations in the autonomy of children at different ages over portion size served, sometimes resulting in increased food waste. The co-designed solution sets for preventing household food waste included interventions focused on educational components (e.g., tips and tricks worksheets), motivation (e.g. cost-savings jar), and household engagement (e.g., video viewing). Although household makeup alters the way that individuals discuss drivers of household food waste, the underlying causes remain consistent. Household-level interventions to reduce food waste should be tailored to household structures, using these discussions as a foundation for effective solutions and human-centered design is an innovative and feasible approach to bolster community engagement for intervention design. Bachelor of Science in Public Healt
Analyzing the Impact of Birth Complications on the Mother-Child Relationship
Get PDFThe prevalence of birth complications and their subsequent impact on maternal mental health and the mother-child relationship is significant. Current literature demonstrates that these complications can lead to postpartum depression (PPD), postpartum anxiety (PPA), and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), which negatively affect mothers, children, and family systems as a whole. This study aimed to analyze the relation between birth complications and the mother-child relationship, focusing on maternal mental health, parenting behaviors, and external factors such as socioeconomic status (SES), social support, and maternity leave. To examine this topic, I employed a literature review and semi-structured interviews with eight mothers who have given birth in the last ten years. Our findings suggest that birth complications significantly heighten the risk of maternal mental health challenges, disrupt parenting behaviors, and are moderated or exacerbated by external factors. Lastly, improvements in postpartum health care, including mental health screenings, lactation consulting, and implementing universal health care are crucial. Support from partners and friends is also important in moderating the impact of these challenges. We encourage professionals who work to support women, policymakers, and those closest to mothers, such as partners and friends, to consider these results.Bachelor of Art