Coping as a Moderator of the Associations between Risk Knowledge, Perceived Risk, and Health Behaviors in Adolescents and Young Adults with Congenital Heart Disease

There is a growing population of individuals with congenital heart disease (CHD) who now survive into adulthood. These individuals are at risk for future cardiac related comorbidities and research shows they have a poor understanding of healthcare requirements necessary to mitigate them. Patient perception of future health risks has not been explored in CHD patients and may influence how well individuals deal with future complications. This study evaluated future risk perception by measuring perceived risk, which is the number of future health complications a patient believes he/she is at risk and risk knowledge, which is how accurate an individual is based off of personal diagnosis. Furthermore, this study evaluated the association between perceived risk, risk knowledge and specific health behaviors related to diet and exercise that may improve health outcomes. The study also evaluated how this relationship is moderated by coping. Coping is voluntary behavior that involves engaging or disengaging with stressors. Participants included adolescents and adults with CHD (N=200) at Nationwide Children’s Hospital ranging in age from 15-39 (M = 24.5 ±6.7) with varying levels of disease severity (simple = 23%, moderate= 45%, severe= 32%). Self-report measures included a CHD knowledge questionnaire evaluating perceived risk and risk knowledge, saturated fat intake and physical activity, and a response-to-stress questionnaire to identify coping styles. Results showed an association between perceived risk and risk knowledge (r = .58, p=.01). A positive correlation was found between age and risk knowledge (r= .49, p=.01). Multiple regression analysis showed that coping strategies did not interact with risk knowledge to predict saturated fat intake or physical activity.No embargoAcademic Major: Psycholog

Supporting circular economy innovation: An analysis of a circular economy intervention in Wales.

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently advised that “climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet” (2023, p.6). This threat underlines the importance of developing businesses innovation capabilities and implementing Circular Economy (CE) principles. Organisations that have developed innovation capabilities are most likely to implement CE principles within their organisations. However, the UK has suffered a ‘long tail of productivity’ largely due to the UK’s relatively low levels of innovation across the firm population. In Wales, the location of this study, output per hour worked was almost 16% below the UK average in 2021, suggesting that the levels of innovation capability might hinderCE implementation. Therefore, evidence on programmes that support organisations to develop their innovation capabilities and their CE understanding should be of interest to policymakers, academics, and practitioners. This paper presents data collected from a university designed CE innovation programme, the Cardiff Circular Economy Network, and suggests that the novel approach adopted enhanced the innovation capabilities and CE knowledge of participants

Deconstructing the ivory tower: identifying challenges of university-industry ecosystem partnerships

Collaboration between industry and academia necessitates the management of entrepreneurial dynamics within ecosystem contexts. However, such partnerships perpetuate numerous challenges that, without effective management, can impact upon the ecosystem as a whole. Limited research to date has addressed the challenges affecting these university-industry partnerships and ascertained their impact upon ecosystem management. This study identifies the challenges pervading university-industry partnerships across entrepreneurial ecosystems, with a view that through an exposition of such challenges, more specific strategies could be implemented to address them. Questionnaires were distributed to key ecosystem stakeholders, requesting their perceptions of the key challenges affecting their collaborative relationships. Empirical data was analysed utilising fuzzy-set qualitative comparative analysis to deduce the configurational nature of the conditions. Results reveal mutually exclusive solutions grounded upon distinct combinations of conditions, constituting distinct pathways to ineffective ecosystem management. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed, as well as acknowledged limitations of this study and suggestions for future research

On the Combinatory Nature of Knowledge Transfer Conditions: A Mixed Method Assessment

Organisations are increasingly creating inter-organisational ecosystem partnerships to innovate openly. Despite effective knowledge management significantly supporting ecosystem infrastructures, empirical insights into the importance of and interdependencies between conditions for successful knowledge exchange across ecosystem contexts remain unexplored within existing literature. This study implements a mixed-method approach to ascertain which conditions are responsible for knowledge transfer success across innovation ecosystems. Interpretive Structural Modelling was employed to analyse questionnaires with key ecosystem stakeholders, in order to impose a hierarchical structure upon the conditions. The configurational nature of these conditions, and their combinations into solutions for success was ascertained through analysing semi-structured interviews using fuzzy-set Qualitative Comparative Analysis. Results reveal multiple, mutually exclusive pathways to knowledge transfer success, grouped into three solution types, increasing understanding of the interrelated nature of the knowledge transfer conditions. Limitations and implications for future research are provided

Understanding Neighborhood Influences on the Hispanic Health Paradox

In my dissertation research I dive deeper into the “Hispanic Health Paradox” – a pattern wherein Hispanic individuals often exhibit better health than other race/ethnic groups, even though they generally have lower socioeconomic standing. I examine the role Hispanic neighborhoods may play in the Hispanic Health Paradox by using electronic health records from over 150,000 adults in Denver, Colorado to document health differences between Hispanic and non-Hispanic groups. I find that Hispanic neighborhoods in Denver are associated with diverse health patterns, including higher rates of obesity but lower rates of depression. Hispanic neighborhoods also have lower rates of health inequality between Hispanic and non-Hispanic white residents compared to other types of neighborhoods. To understand these diverse findings and the literature more broadly, I propose a neighborhood health heterogeneity framework. I argue that multilevel intersectionality and cultural heterogeneity may be some of the mechanisms through which the same neighborhoods can produce diverse health outcomes for residents. I also test new statistical measures of Hispanic neighborhoods, and test the effects of measurement, geography, and spatial contiguity on my findings

Findings from Year Two of the External Evaluation of the Healthy & Active Communities Initiative

The Missouri Foundation for Health has funded 33 projects under its Healthy & Active Communities (H&AC) Initiative in two-year funding cycles. A set of 15 projects was funded beginning in 2005 while a set of 18 was funded starting in 2006. This report is the second of three annual reports that assess the extent to which the H&AC Initiative is achieving its objectives. The report builds upon the findings described in “Findings from Year One of the External Evaluation of the Healthy & Active Communities Initiative.” The Missouri Foundation for Health contracted with the Institute of Public Policy, Truman School of Public Affairs at the University of Missouri to provide an evaluation of the success of the Initiative as a whole. This focus differs from the typical evaluation where evaluators are assessing and reporting on the success of individual funded projects. Instead, the evaluation looked across the funded projects to identify common factors of success. Continuing from the framework established in 2006, the evaluation team worked from a socio-ecological model. This model assumes that complex prevention programs such as the H&AC projects must use a multi-faceted approach in order to change behavior on individual, organizational and community levels simultaneously. To evaluate programs with multiple approaches such as these, the evaluators determined that cluster evaluation, a strategy developed by the Kellogg Foundation, could be used to identify successful features of the Initiative as a whole. This method enables the evaluators to identify successful program and community conditions that transcend the individual projects

Supporting circular economy innovation: An analysis of a circular economy intervention in Wales

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) recently advised that “climate change is a grave and mounting threat to our wellbeing and a healthy planet” (2023, p.6). This threat underlines the importance of developing businesses innovation capabilities and implementing Circular Economy (CE) principles. Organisations that have developed innovation capabilities are most likely to implement CE principles within their organisations. However, the UK has suffered a ‘long tail of productivity’ largely due to the UK’s relatively low levels of innovation across the firm population. In Wales, the location of this study, output per hour worked was almost 16% below the UK average in 2021, suggesting that the levels of innovation capability might hinder CE implementation. Therefore, evidence on programmes that support organisations to develop their innovation capabilities and their CE understanding should be of interest to policymakers, academics, and practitioners. This paper presents data collected from a university designed CE innovation programme, the Cardiff Circular Economy Network, and suggests that the novel approach adopted enhanced the innovation capabilities and CE knowledge of participants

Top-Ranked Priority Research Questions for Soil Science in the 21st Century

Soils provide critical support essential for life on earth, regulate processes across diverse terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems, and interact with the atmosphere. However, soil science is constrained by a variety of challenges including decreasing funding prospects and a declining number of new students and young professionals. Hence, there is a crucial need to revitalize the impact, relevance, and recognition of soil science as well as promote collaboration beyond traditionally defined soil science research disciplines. Such revitalization and collaboration may be fostered by a shift from discipline-focused soil science research to cross-disciplinary research approaches and issue-driven research. In this paper, we present the outcomes of an initiative to identify priority research questions as a tool for guiding future soil science research. The collaborative approach involved four stages including (i) survey-based solicitation of questions; (ii) criteria-based screening of submitted candidate questions, (iii) criteria-based ranking of screened questions, and (iv) final revision of top ranked questions. The 25 top ranked research questions emerged from 140 submitted candidate questions within five predetermined thematic areas that represent current and emerging research areas. We expect that the identified questions will inspire both existing and prospective researchers, enhance multi-disciplinary collaboration both within and outside soil science, draw the attention of grant-awarding bodies, and guide soil science research to address pressing societal, agricultural, and environmental challenges. Furthermore, we hope that the approach and findings presented in this paper will advance soil sciences by fostering improved collaboration among soil science practitioners and researchers, as well as with other sciences, policy experts, and emerging professionals (including students) to meet societal needs