Difficulties Faced by Non-Native English Speakers in Healthcare Settings

Language barriers in healthcare settings can cause many difficulties for both the patient and others involved. These issues, such as problems in communication and decreased comfort levels, can worsen patients’ understanding and impair their experiences in healthcare settings. This area requires attention and further research, as it has been found that these challenges in communication increase the issue of patient safety. They also cause a reduction in patients’ satisfaction with the treatment (Al Shamsi et al., 2020). In this study, a survey was distributed throughout the Omaha area to better understand the prevalence and severity of issues regarding difficulties faced by non-native English-speakers in healthcare settings (e.g., poor communication and issues understanding their prescription medication). Though limited survey responses were collected (n=14), the participants indicated that these issues may be relevant in Omaha’s community. All participants reported being able to speak at least one other language in addition to English and responded that they could speak English “well” to “very well.” Thirty-five-point seven percent of the participants of this survey reported seeing a doctor who did not speak their native language. This can lead to the reliance on other methods to effectively communicate with healthcare personnel. Twenty-one-point four percent of participants reported having experienced a problem in understanding a medical situation due to it not being explained in their native language. These responses indicate that issues of communication and comfort level are relevant among the Omaha Metropolitan area and requires improvement

Natural Fracture Evolution: Investigations into the Middle Devonian Marcellus Shale, Appalachian Basin, USA

Optimizing recovery from unconventional shale reservoirs has generated considerable research into optimal recovery methods through hydraulic fracturing design and shale reservoir characterization in the development of long-term hydrocarbon producers. Permeability at multiple scales from nanometer-scale pore sizes and nano-darcy permeability to completion-induced fractures defining a 100’s of meter stimulated reservoir volume plays a significant role in hydrocarbon flow during production in shale reservoirs. Preexisting cemented fractures in unconventional shale reservoirs are abundant and preferentially reactivate during induced hydraulic fracturing treatment to create necessary large-scale permeability. While previous investigations have significantly improved our knowledge of shale reservoirs, it has also highlighted the need for increased understanding of the geologic evolution and effect on hydraulic stimulation of pre-existing cemented fractures. This three-part dissertation examines natural fractures from four middle Devonian Marcellus Shale wells across the Appalachian basin through integration of visual core observation, thin section petrography, spectral gamma ray logs, borehole image logs, petrophysical logs, elemental data, and X-ray computed tomography cores. The research goals are: (1) to establish clues to assess natural fracture development in source rocks from kerogen maturation, relative timing, and hydrocarbon migration; (2) to investigate the relationship of natural fractures in wells of varying thermal maturity levels, and preferential fracture distribution in various clay types and redox environments; and (3) to characterize mineralized natural fractures in 3D using a medical CT-scan core to quantify volume and assess connectivity. This research indicates that overpressure from kerogen expulsion of hydrocarbon creates numerous cemented fractures filled with calcite and bitumen that achieve orientations related to the geologic burial stresses during their evolution, predominant in clay-rich units of certain redox conditions, cluster at geomechanical boundaries, and have inconsistent 3D volume changes within the core

The Impact of Emotionally Charged Music on Attentional Bias Towards Color

This study examines the relationship between listening to music with an emotional valence and attentional bias towards emotion-associated colors. The variables considered in this study are valence of music (positive, negative, or neutral sound), color-emotion association (based on the literature or chosen by the individual), and attentional bias towards color, as measured by a dot-probe task. Previous research suggests that from a young age, humans are able to perceive music as happy or sad and show an emotional response to musical valence (Dalla Bella, Peretz, Rousseau, & Gosselin, 2001). Additionally, bright colors are more often associated with positive emotions, while dark colors tend to be associated with negative emotions, but these associations may differ from person to person. In general, people are usually attracted to stimuli that matches their current mood (Hemphill, 1996; Becker & Leinenger, 2011). In this study, 49 undergraduate students completed a color attentional bias task three times while listening to music with either a positive or negative emotional valence or neutral white noise. Half of the participants were given the same task with predetermined colors. The other half were surveyed on their individual color-emotion associations and given personalized tasks based on those results. Preliminary data suggests that people’s individual color associations are largely consistent with the literature and each other. Additionally, attention may be drawn towards positive colors regardless of background music

Emotionally-Charged Music Influences Attentional Bias Towards Positive Colors

Emotionally-Charged Music Influences Attentional Bias Towards Positive Colors Abigail Mitchell & Carole Scherling, PhD. Abstract Early-on, humans perceive music as happy or sad, and demonstrate concordant emotional responses (Dalla Bella, 2001). Colors themselves are also intrinsic to emotional experiences. Respectively, bright and dark colors associate with positive and negative emotions, and people are attracted to stimuli matching current mood (Becker & Leinenger, 2011). The current study used a modified Color Dot-Probe task to examined the influence of emotional music on color biases. The task involved looking at the central screen, where 2 color squares would appear to the right and left, followed by the appearance of a target behind one color. Reaction times were recorded from target appearance to location identification through a button press, with shorter reaction times indicating a higher attentional draw. Subjects completed the task three times, first without background music and then randomized with positive and negative music. Pilot data from 32 participants indicates slower reaction times when the probe appeared behind negative colors, during both positive and negative musical trials (t= -2.17, p \u3c 0.05; t= -2.13, p \u3c 0.05). No differences in reaction times were shown between musical types when behind positive colors, nor between color-types during the non-musical trials (p\u3e0.05). Data collection is ongoing, but preliminary results indicate that background music, regardless of valence, biases attention towards positive colors. Therefore, it suggests that music itself introduces a color biases. These findings may be useful in future affective studies and may have applications in advertising

Mentoring New Faculty

AbstractAccording to an AACN Press Release 9-2010, the faculty vacancy rate continues to climb. Currently at a rate of 6.9%, the nurse faculty vacancies will continue to climb over the next ten years. Greater than 90% of these vacancies either prefer or require a doctoral degree and unfortunately, there are a limited number of doctoral prepared nurses. Along with the lack of doctoral, prepare nurses schools of nursing also have difficulty competing with healthcare and research organizations that can provide a limited pool of doctoral prepared nurses with higher salaries and benefits. Schools of nursing are also facing the impact of the nation's economic situation and with budget cuts and hiring freezes are not able to provide nurse faculty for their increasing enrollments.According to an AACN Press Release 9-2010, the faculty vacancy rate continues to climb. Garbee & Killacky, 2008 article: A recent study investigating the variables for nurse faculty intent to stay employed in academia concluded that years 1-3 are critical for retention methods and interventions. In fact, nurse faculty that were mentored or had “peer- support” and were doctoral prepared were the most committed to working in academia. It has been stated in numerous research Studies regarding nurse faculty, mentoring enables the novice nurse faculty member to balance work and life effectively and remain satisfied in an academic role. Race and Skees article 2010: Race and Skees noted several challenges with mentoring novice faculty; time management, toxic mentoring, mentor-mentee mismatches and variations in learning needs can poorly influence the mentor/mentee relationship and novice faculty intent to stay in academia. In this article, the authors conclude that an individual approach in necessary and that each mentoring relationship needs to be well planned and individualized to be successful. The lack of nurse faculty is directly affecting that demand for RN, and in return, we will be unable to meet the greying nations healthcare needs because of a lack of nurses. Novice nurse faculty face several new stressors when entering academia. First is the change of role and autonomy that is often a new experience for nurses. Students come with all types of challenges: from the student with personal problems to the behaviour of students within the classroom setting. Learning to manage the challenges of students can become extremely stressful. The entire academic environment can be a cultural shock for some novice faculty. For example learning the “academic pace” when one is used to the pace of a hospital environment can become frustrating and challenging for many. A formal mentoring program is the answer to success. Recruitment of qualified nursing professors and retention of these individuals is a hot topic

Financial Regret at Older Ages and Longevity Awareness

Older people often express regret about financial decisions made earlier in life that left them susceptible to old-age insecurity. Prior work has explored one outcome, saving regret, or peoples’ expressed wish that they had saved more earlier in life. The present paper extends attention to five additional areas regarding financial decisions, examining whether older Americans also regret not having insured better, claimed benefits and quit working too early, and becoming financially dependent on others. Using a controlled randomized experiment conducted on 1,764 respondents age 50+ in the Health and Retirement Study, we show that providing people objective longevity information does alter their self-reported financial regret. Specifically, giving people information about objective survival probabilities more than doubled regret expressed about not having purchased long term care, and it also boosted their regret by 2.4 times for not having purchased lifetime income. We conclude that information provision can be a potent, as well as cost-effective, method of alerting people to retirement risk

Neighborhood Development Team

poster abstractThe Neighborhood Development Team worked to address the public problem of payday loans in Central Indiana. The economic disadvantaged in Indianapolis commonly utilize payday loans. Payday loans average $300-$400 at 390% interest. An average payday loan customer will take out nine loans in a given year. Research stated that borrowers generate 90% of the payday lending business with five or more loans per year the problem is that borrowers have an issue repaying loans within a limited period due to these high interest rates and are in need of another loan to pay back the original loan. Our model provides the same loans as the payday loans but at a much smaller, 36%, interest rate for a longer duration, thirty days instead of fourteen days. Our loans will also contribute to the borrower’s credit score. The greater goal is economic empowerment

Sex Differences in the Disease Progression of FTD vs AD

Abigail Mitchell, Danielle Frances, Chase Metzger Sex Differences in the Disease Progression of FTD vs AD. Abstract Neurodegenerative diseases are on the rise in aging populations due to the upper tier of the population getting larger in that age group (Zheng & Chen, 2022). Knowing this, there is great benefit in more accurate and early diagnosis of conditions like frontotemporal dementia (FTD) and Alzheimer’s disease (AD). Particularly, it is important to understand which variables may contribute to differences in disease burden and progression of associated sequalae, with one of those variables being biological sex. The current study investigated sex differences in the disease progression of Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) verses Alzheimer’s (AD) over time. All data for this study was extracted from open datasets provided by the National Alzheimer’s Coordinating Center (NACC). Disease progression is quantified by deficits in cognitive ability as well as volumetric loss in the brain. In particular, voxel-based morphometry analyses on high-resolution T1 MRI scans extracted whole grey matter volumes (GM) at 2 timepoints, separated by years, as well as regionally-specific volumetric measures of the insula for FTD, hippocampus for AD and the cingulate cortex for both conditions. Coping ability outcomes, measured by traditional clinical assessments at matching timepoints to the MRI acquisitions include the Clinical Dementia Rating scale sum of boxes (CDRsb), Mini-mental state exam (MMSE), and Montreal cognitive assessment (MOCA). The current study expects to replicate existing findings in the field, with FTD and AD female patients revealing faster disease progression than males, as measure by volumetric analyses. However, it is expected that FTD females will reveal better coping abilities compared to males, and that AD females will have worse coping abilities in a similar sex comparison. The data is currently being analyzed and the results will be presented a