Human Papillomavirus (HPV) Vaccination Status Among University Freshmen in Hawai‘i

Purpose/Background: The HPV vaccine provides immunity against nine HPV strains that cause cancer and genital warts. It is recommended for 11 to 12 year olds, and catch-up immunization is recommended for females 13 to 26 years old and males 13 to 21 years old. College students represent an important population for HPV vaccination due to their increased risk for HPV infection. Despite the benefits of the HPV vaccine, its coverage rates are low in Hawaii. Hawai‘i is the home of two large universities on two islands that are representative of Hawai‘i’s populations, including Native Hawaiians, Filipinos, and Pacific Islanders. The purpose of this study was to assess the current HPV and HPV vaccine knowledge, barriers and beliefs among incoming Freshmen university students at University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa and University of Hawai‘i at Hilo. Materials & Methods: In 2016, 200 University of Hawai‘i at Mānoa (UHM) and University of Hawai‘i at Hilo (UHH) Freshmen students responded to a survey that assessed their knowledge and awareness of HPV, the HPV vaccine, their current vaccination status, and barriers and motivators to vaccination. Descriptive statistics were used to summarize each survey variable first for all students and then separately for each campus. Results: Overall 76% of Freshmen from both campuses heard of the HPV vaccine and 54% reported hearing it from their health care provider. Only 28% UHM and 23% UHH Freshmen students have received partial (1-2 shots) or completed doses of the HPV vaccine. For those who received the vaccine, 45% reported that they were told by their parent and 43% were told by their doctor. For the 147 students who did not receive the vaccine, 28% reported that they are still not sure to get it and 20% need more information. Their main reasons for not receiving the HPV vaccine were: their doctor did not mention the vaccine to him/her (44%), he/she never knew about the vaccine (18%), and they don\u27t know enough about the vaccine (17%). Discussion/Conclusion: Although the HPV vaccine has been available for 13 years, young adults remain unvaccinated. Freshmen students reported that they are informed about the vaccine, but were not vaccinated because of the lack of parental and/or healthcare provider recommendation. With no active education campaigns in Hawaii promoting the HPV vaccine at college campuses, a first step to increasing vaccination rates is to develop a health education campaign to inform students of the HPV vaccine and its availability at campus clinics and neighboring pharmacies

Water Use and Abuse in the United States: Behavioural Patterns Behind Excess Water Consumption and an Argument for an Efficient Demand Side Remedy

The last decade saw severe drought in the southeastern United States, which presented questions about the ways in which Americans use water and the best ways for government entities to handle future drought. During and after the droughts, researchers examined existing literature on water overconsumption and conducted new studies to explore water use and related behavior. We review the predominant work on the factors that influence household water consumption, the different methods by which government agencies can combat overconsumption, and argue for the demand-side approach of structured rate increases to limit superfluous use of water

The GRIN Approach: Minimizing Disruptive Behaviors and Increasing Academic Engagements

Learners cannot learn in chaos. Teachers as facilitators of learning is also the classroom manager. Numerous research and studies have correlated that positive classroom management is vital for effective teaching and learning to happen. Studies also showed that disruptive behaviors inside the classroom will be a great hindrance for learning if not addressed properly. On the other hand, studies have also shown that corporal punishment or punitive approaches to disruptive behavior have cause more harm rather than to solve the problem. These negative responses were able alleviate and not decrease the learners sense of responsibility with their actions. Inflicting fear within them is not an effective solution to stop the learners misbehaviors.

The Influence of Chromophore Structure on Intermolecular Interactions. A Study of Selected Rhodamines in Polar Protic and Aprotic Solvents

We have studied the linear optical response and orientational relaxation dynamics of a family of rhodamine dyes in which there is substantial variation in the chromophore structure. For these chromophores, the identity of a substituent at the center ring (1) position mediates the linear optical response of the chromophore, and semiempirical calculations provide agreement with experimental data. This phenomenon can be understood in terms of the extent of conjugation of the chromophore ring system. The reorientation data for these chromophores in several polar protic and aprotic solvents are nominally consistent with the predictions of the modified Debye-Stokes-Einstein (DSE) model. In several cases, polar aprotic solvents are found to interact more strongly than polar aprotic solvents with the rhodamine chromophores, despite the difference in the nature of intermolecular interactions in the two types of solvents. The terminal amino functionalities on the rhodamines exhibit stronger interactions with protic solvents than the analogous chromophores that have been structurally modified to constrain amino group rotation. The data point to the importance of both sitespecific solvent-solute interactions and dipole-dipole interactions in mediating the solution phase dynamics of rhodamines