An Examination of Student Performance in Pre-Requisite Coursework and Upper Division Nursing Coursework

Admission and retention of qualified nursing students are essential in meeting the demands of a rapidly changing health care environment and nursing shortage. The purpose of this exploratory correlational study was to determine the relationship between student performance in quantitative pre-requisite coursework and student performance in upper division nursing coursework in order to identify students at-risk for attrition. A series of descriptive and correlational analyses were conducted using pre-existing institutional data. A moderate relationship existed among the chemistry II and first-year upper division nursing courses (r = .21 to r = .40). These results suggest that prerequisite chemistry course performance could be a reliable predictor of academic success

Quality of Life in Patients with Graves\u27 Disease

Background Graves\u27 disease is the most common cause of hyperthyroidism. Despite receiving treatment for hyperthyroidism, symptoms often persist, despite being chemically euthyroid. By performing this study, the researcher hoped to learn how the persistence of these symptoms affects quality of life in Graves\u27 disease. Methods The questionnaire used was adapted from the Hyperthyroidism Complaint Questionnaire designed by Fahrenfort and Wilterdink, with results published in the February 2000 issue of psychoneuroendocrinoloy. The modified questionnaire was sent to members of the National Graves\u27 Disease Foundation. Respondents were questioned on symptoms and affects on relationships, careers and overall functioning. Data was analyzed using the Statistical package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) for frequency of responses, and by using Pearson\u27s correlation coefficient Results Common persistent complaints included feeling easily stressed, memory problems, decreased energy and decreased libido. Over 25% of respondents indicated relationships had struggled, citing more frequent conflicts and feeling others lack understanding for their feelings. Respondents also indicated Graves\u27 had affected their careers. Conclusion Respondents indicated the persistence of several symptoms and also found their relationships, careers, and daily functioning affected. These areas are important in helping to determine satisfaction with life and therefore, it was determined that Graves\u27 disease can adversely affect quality of life

Uneven development and peri-urbanization in South Africa: Exploring landscape change in Polokwane, South Africa

Changes in local landscapes of South Africa are tied to changing social and economic structures of the post-apartheid era. Though there have been significant shifts in land and labor laws, as well as economic policies, between the apartheid era and current times, significant inequalities between communities remain a defining characteristic of the post-apartheid landscape. This research contends that through a combination of social processes occurring between the local, national, and global scales, local landscape is produced unevenly as a manifestation of the coproduction of space. Using a structuralist approach, the research examines local change through the theoretical lenses of uneven development, co-production, and deproletarianization. These approaches each seek to explain the processes surrounding peri-urbanization trends near the research site of Polokwane, South Africa. Using a mixed methods approach for data collection connects the theoretical implications to the lived realities of individuals in South Africa. The mixed methods include quantitative surveys, qualitative and semi-structured interviews, focus groups, and geospatial technologies, through which I gained a deeper understanding of the social processes influencing local livelihoods and land use patterns. The results of this research demonstrate that new areas of peri-urban growth represent significantly lower living standards than the suburban growth near the city. While peri-urban areas have grown the most between 1990 and 2009, some of this growth is represented by informal settlements where access to urban infrastructure is scarce and poorly developed. Deproletarianization contributes to uneven geographical development by limiting access to the wage labor market and forcing people to live close to the city in order to gain access to this resource. Furthermore, this process interacts with local and national level macro-economic policies aimed toward capitalist growth rather than community development to create great unevenness both within and between peri-urban areas. In addition, local governance and past-apartheid policies also influence the scope and direction of peri-urban growth and livelihood possibilities for individuals and households living in the peri-urban interface. This research concludes that while Polokwane, South Africa might be in a post-apartheid era of governance it is certainly not in a post-poverty era

From experiment results to a constraint hierarchy with the 'Rank Centrality' algorithm

Rank Centrality (RC; Negahban, Oh, & Shah 2017) is a rank-aggregation algorithm that computes a total ranking of elements from noisy pairwise ranking information. I test RC as an alternative to incremental error-driven learning algorithms such as GLA-MaxEnt (Boersma & Hayes 2001; Jäger 2007) for modeling a constraint hierarchy on the basis of two-alternative forced-choice experiment results. For the case study examined here, RC agrees well with GLA-MaxEnt on the ordering of the constraints, but differs somewhat on the distance between constraints; in particular, RC assigns more extreme (low) positions to constraints at the bottom of the hierarchy than GLA-MaxEnt does. Overall, these initial results are promising, and RC merits further investigation as a constraint-ranking method in experimental linguistics

FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH TASTE PERCEPTION AND DIETARY CONSUMPTION PATTERNS IN INDIVIDUALS WITH OR AT-RISK FOR CARDIOVASCULAR DISEASE

Excessive intake of sodium, sugar, fats, and other unhealthy dietary patterns significantly contribute to cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk and, among those with diagnosed CVD, to deleterious outcomes. Taste perception is one of the most important factors influencing dietary intake and there are many factors that can alter it such as medication and genetic variations. Yet there has been relatively little research on influences of taste perception on self-management of CVD and CVD risk. The purpose of this dissertation is to examine the association of various factors and taste perception in order to add to our understanding of what may or may not influence dietary consumption behaviors among persons at-risk for or with diagnosed CVD. The specific aims of this dissertation were to 1) examine the association between dietary sodium consumption and antihypertensive medication regimen in patients with heart failure (HF); 2) examine the associations between variants of the TAS2R38 haplotype and dietary intake patterns of salt, sugar, fat, alcohol and vegetables in community dwelling adults in Appalachia Kentucky with 2 or more CVD risk factors; and 3) examine associations between the TAS2R38 haplotype and salt taste sensitivity and sodium consumption in patients with HF and their family caregivers. Specific aim one was addressed by evaluating whether prescribed diuretic, beta blocker, angiotensin II receptor blockers (ARBs), and angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors predicted sodium consumption as evidenced by sodium density in a sample of patients with HF when controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, smoking status, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class and body mass index (BMI). The results of this study indicate that, among patients with HF, prescribed ACE inhibitor is predictive of higher sodium consumption but not prescribed diuretics, beta blockers and angiotensin receptor blockers. To address specific aim two, a secondary analysis of data of a sample of adults living in rural Appalachia with 2 or more CVD risk factors was conducted. We examined if having one or two PAV haplotypes was predictive of patterns of salt, sugar, fat, alcohol and vegetable consumption, controlling for age, gender, smoking status, BMI, and prescribed ACE and ARB. There were no associations between TAS2R38 haplotype and any of these dietary intake patterns. Specific aim three was addressed in a study to examine the associations between the TAS2R38 haplotype and salt taste sensitivity and sodium consumption as indicated by 24-hour urinary sodium excretion in patients with HF and their family caregivers, controlling for age, gender, ethnicity, smoking status, and fungiform papillae number. Our outcomes indicated that haplotype did not predict salt taste sensitivity but did predict 24-hour urinary sodium excretion, with significantly less levels of urinary sodium excretion among participants who were homozygous for the PAV haplotype compared to those who were heterozygous for the PAV haplotype or homozygous for the AVI haplotype. The results of these studies, separately and in concert, provide greater understanding of influences of taste perception on self-management among people who are at-risk for or who have diagnosed CVD