More Than Just Pulling Weeds: A Case Study of Engaging Upper- Division Conservation Biology Students in Service-Learning

The field of conservation biology focuses on maintaining biodiversity by mitigating both global and local threats. One of the top threats to biodiversity is the worldwide problem of invasive species. Each community has its own pests to control, and students can engage with this global issue on a local scale through well-designed service-learning courses. This article discusses how students engaged with conservation biology through an integrated service-learning project tackling invasive species at a local nature center. Products of the class, data from class artifacts, as well as student feedback on evaluations are also presented

PRETERM BIRTH PREDICTION AND RECEIPT OF POSTPARTUM CONTRACEPTION AMONG PARTICIPANTS OF NORTH CAROLINA'S PREGNANCY MEDICAL HOME PROGRAM

The purpose of this dissertation is to determine which combination of risk factors from Community Care of North Carolina's Pregnancy Medical Home risk screening form is most predictive of preterm birth and to compare receipt of postpartum contraception for women who experienced a recent preterm birth with women who had a term birth. This retrospective cohort includes pregnant Medicaid beneficiaries screened by the program who delivered a live birth in North Carolina between September 2011 and September 2012. Data come from Community Care of North Carolina's Case Management Information System, Medicaid claims, and birth certificates. The first paper of the dissertation designed and internally validated a predictive model of preterm birth using variables from the Pregnancy Medical Home risk screen. Logistic regression models and bootstrapping techniques indicated that the optimal combination of risk factors for PTB prediction include non-Hispanic black race, smoking during pregnancy, underweight, multi-fetal gestation, chronic disease (diabetes, hypertension, asthma, renal disease, and other chronic conditions), cervical insufficiency, nulliparity, and previous adverse reproductive outcomes (history of preterm birth, low birth weight baby, fetal death, and second trimester loss). Salient risk factors were identified for subgroups by parity and race/ethnicity including obesity, food insecurity, unsafe or unstable housing, and a short interpregnancy interval. Evaluation of the Pregnancy Medical Home risk screen provides insight to increase its sensitivity and specificity to improve identification of women early in pregnancy at highest risk for preterm birth. The second paper compared the prevalence of contraceptive receipt and effectiveness in Medicaid claims among women with and without a recent preterm birth using logistic and multinomial logistic regression. Contraceptive receipt was 50% (25% for the most effective methods) for women who delivered preterm at 90 days postpartum compared to 52% (28% for the most effective methods) among women who delivered full term. Women with a recent preterm birth with more than two children had lower odds of receiving contraception compared to equal parity women who delivered at term (OR = 0.84, 95% CI: 0.74, 0.96). Care management should focus on the provision of effective methods of contraception to women with a recent preterm birth.Doctor of Philosoph

Infant feeding experiences among teen mothers in North Carolina: Findings from a mixed-methods study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Adolescent mothers in the U.S. are much less likely to initiate breastfeeding than older mothers, and teens who do initiate breastfeeding tend to breastfeed for shorter durations. The purpose of this mixed-methods study is to investigate breastfeeding practices, barriers and facilitators among adolescent mothers ages 17 and younger.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>Quantitative descriptive analyses are conducted using data from the North Carolina Pregnancy Risk Assessment Monitoring System (PRAMS). The population-based sample comprises 389 teens ages 13-17 giving birth to a live born infant in North Carolina in 2000 - 2005 and in 2007. Qualitative analyses are based on in-depth interviews with 22 Black, White and Hispanic teen mothers residing in rural and urban areas of North Carolina conducted between November 2007 and February 2009.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>In quantitative analyses, 52% (196 of 389) of North Carolina teen mothers initiated breastfeeding, but half of those who initiated breastfeeding (92/196) stopped within the first month postpartum. Hispanic teens (44/52 or 89%) were much more likely than Black (61/159 or 41%) or White teens (87/164 or 52%) to initiate breastfeeding and to continue for a longer duration. Nearly sixty two percent (29/52) of Hispanic respondents breastfed for greater than four weeks as compared to 16% (29/159) of Black respondents and 26% (39/164) of White respondents. Common barriers to breastfeeding initiation and continuation included not liking breastfeeding, returning to school, nipple pain, and insufficient milk. Qualitative data provided context for the quantitative findings, elucidating the barriers and facilitators to breastfeeding from the teens' perspective and insight into the ways in which breastfeeding support to teens could be enhanced.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>The large number of adolescents ceasing breastfeeding within the first month points to the need for more individualized follow-up after hospital discharge in the first few days postpartum, to address common technical challenges and to provide assistance managing the transition back to school. Provision of an extra home visit or outpatient visit for teens within the first few days following hospital discharge, and advocacy to make schools more compatible with breastfeeding, could potentially help teens who desire to breastfeed to successfully continue. These interventions warrant further research to test their effectiveness among adolescents.</p

Constructing information experience: a grounded theory portrait of academic information management

Purpose This paper aims to discuss what it means to consider the information experience of academic information management from a constructivist grounded theory perspective. Using a doctoral study in progress as a case illustration, the authors demonstrate how information experience research applies a wide lens to achieve a holistic view of information management phenomena. By unifying a range of elements, and understanding information and its management to be inseparable from the totality of human experience, an information experience perspective offers a fresh approach to answering today\u27s research questions. Design/methodology/approach The case illustration is a constructivist grounded theory study using interactive interviews, an original form of semi-structured qualitative interviews combined with card-sorting exercises (Conrad and Tucker, 2019), to deepen reflections by participants and externalize their information experiences. The constructivist variant of grounded theory offers an inductive, exploratory approach to address the highly contextualized information experiences of student-researchers in managing academic information. Findings Preliminary results are reported in the form of three interpretative categories that outline the key aspects of the information experience for student-researchers. By presenting these initial results, the study demonstrates how the constructivist grounded theory methodology can illuminate multiple truths and bring a focus on interpretive practices to the understanding of information management experiences. Research limitations/implications This new approach offers holistic insights into academic information management phenomena as contextual, fluid and informed by meaning-making and adaptive practices. Limitations include the small sample size customary to qualitative research, within one situated perspective on the academic information management experience. Originality/value The study demonstrates the theoretical and methodological contributions of the constructivist information experience research to illuminate information management in an academic setting

Narrowing the Digital Divide: The Young Women Leaders Program HerStory Project

Research suggests that girls are at especial disadvantage in the field of informational technology and are less likely than boys to take courses or seek out careers in this area. The Young Women Leaders Program (YWLP), a mentoring program at the University of Virginia that pairs at-risk middle school girls with college women for a year of mentoring, developed the YWLP HerStory project to engage middle school girls in informational technology through their development of technology projects focused on psychosocial issues of importance to them. This study reviewed an early version of the YWLP HerStory’s technology curriculum and training for mentors, the revisions made to both, and evaluated the effectiveness of the revisions with a sample of 27 eighth grade girls and their mentors. Findings indicated that participating in the revised curriculum improved girls’ engagement in technology projects, including an 83% completion rate, and modifications to mentor training improved mentor’s grasp of relevant technology and confidence in teaching it to their mentees. Notably, participating eighth grade girls reported that the technology curriculum was fun and expressed an interest in further engagement in using technology platforms to tell their stories

Examining individual, interpersonal, and environmental influences on children’s physical activity levels

The purpose of this study was to explore individual-level socio-demographic factors and interpersonal-level factors related to social support, as well as the potential role of neighborhood and school environments that may influence the physical activity (PA) levels of children (ages 9–11). Child and parent questionnaires included individual and interpersonal factors, and PA behaviour. Home postal codes were used to determine the neighbourhood the child resides within, as well as their geographic accessibility to recreation opportunities. The models were assessed using a series of cross-classified random-intercept multi-level regression models as children’s PA may be affected by both the school they attend and the neighbourhood in which they live. In the unadjusted model, PA varied significantly across school environments (γ = 0.023; CI: 0.003–0.043), but not across neighbourhoods (γ = 0.007; CI: -0.008 to 0.021). Boys were found to be more active compared to girls (b = 0.183; CI: 0.092–0.275), while the level of PA was lower for children whose fathers achieved post-secondary education (b = - 0.197; CI: -0.376 to 0.018) than for those whose parents completed only high school. The addition of the individual-level correlates did not have a substantial effect on level 2 variances and the level 2 variance associated with school environment remained statistically significant. At the interpersonal level, children’s perception of parental support (b = 0.117; CI: 0.091–0.143) and peer support (b = 0.111; CI: 0.079–0.142) were positively related to PA. The level 2 variance for the school environment became statistically non-significant when the interpersonal factors were added to the model. At the environmental level, geographic accessibility did not have a significant association with PA and they did not significantly affect level 1 or 2 variance. As many children do not accrue sufficient levels of PA, identifying modifiable determinants is necessary to develop effective strategies to increase PA