It is crucial to understand how patient portals are used and adopted among different population groups. This dissertation follows a traditional 5-chapter format that includes three studies with the results of each study presented in an essay format. The first essay provides a systematic literature review of existing research on patient portal adoption, barriers, and predictors. This review reveals a gap in knowledge regarding emerging adults who are transitioning from adult care to self-care settings. The second essay presents an emerging adult patient portal behavioral model, which identifies the factors that impact patient portal usage. Finally, the third essay focuses on patient's trust in providers in secure messaging, which is one of the features available through patient portals. The results of Essay 1 revealed gaps in the literature, highlighting the need for understanding the perceptions of different subgroups of the population towards patient portals to promote their meaningful use. The findings from Essay 2 show that perceived risk and perceived usefulness are significant determinants affecting the behavioral intentions of emerging adults toward the usage of patient portals. Essay 3 describes how information reliability, structural assurance, persuasiveness, perceived ease-of-use, and patients' trusting beliefs in providers are related to the patient's intentions to use secure messaging and patient portals. In addition to addressing existing research gaps, the results of the research in this dissertation inform healthcare providers and developers on how to improve patient portal adoption. By identifying the factors that impact patient portal usage, healthcare providers can optimize the benefits of patient portals for patients and healthcare organizations. Additionally, understanding patients' trust in providers in secure messaging can help improve communication and further lead to better health outcomes.

In this exploratory thesis project, I consider what emerging approaches we can take as social scientists to showcase and critically engage self-representations of diasporic individuals, who often lack visibility and legibility within the dominant cultural archive. Filmmaking as a social research practice can provide rich audiovisual data, physical and social access to materials for nonacademics, and opportunities to document and share subjects' comments and settings without the limitations of transcription. This is especially salient in the emerging media landscape of Web 2.0, where digital communications technology applications (such as Facebook, Skype, and Snapchat) are accessible by a global audience, and can act as tools for cultural identity production by diasporic individuals. This project documents the experiences of several first- and second-generation Bangladeshi American immigrants in relation to digital communications technology advances within the past decade, for the purposes of collecting and sharing stories of diasporic individuals, offering a venue for self-expression through empathetic interviewing and collaborative oral history methods, and contributing to the American cultural archive in the context of emerging media and academic landscapes. The full project is comprised of this text document, alongside a short documentary film containing portions of audiovisual data from interviews which can be found at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oh9puazpdrw. / Master of Science

No / This book examines how political communication and the mass media have played a central role in the consolidation of emerging democracies around the world. Covering a broad range of political and cultural contexts, including Eastern and Southern Europe, Latin America, Asia and Africa, this new volume investigates the problems and conflicts arising in the process of establishing an independent media and competitive politics in post-autocratic societies. Considering the changing dynamic in the relationship between political actors, the media and their audience, the authors of this volume address the following issues: Changing journalistic role perceptions and journalistic quality The reasons and consequences of persisting instrumentalization of the media by political actors The role of the media in election campaigns The way in which the citizens interpret political messages and the extent to which the media influence political attitudes and electoral behaviour The role of the Internet in building a democratic public sphere.

The world is grappling with an escalating risk of viral outbreaks of pandemic proportion, with zoonotic RNA viruses such as chikungunya virus (CHIKV) and SARS-CoV-2 posing significant threats to global health. Several environmental and evolutionary factors have fueled the emergence and spread of infection, creating a constant arms race against emerging pathogens. Current prevention and mitigation strategies are inadequate, necessitating tools to prevent and control viral infections; innovative strategies are needed in the pipeline to address significant challenges. CHIKV is a mosquito-borne virus that has caused millions of disease cases worldwide and is a reemerging threat with increasing potential to become endemic in the US. Currently, there are no licensed treatments available to protect against CHIK disease, making the development of a vaccine crucial. Live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) have traditionally been a promising strategy due to their high immunogenicity and cost-effectiveness. However, concerns regarding adverse side effects and the potential for viral replication leading to pathogenic reversions or transmission into mosquitoes have limited their use. To that end, we have developed a new generation of safer vaccines by modifying the standard LAV platform through innovative attenuating strategies. Our dual-attenuated platform utilizes a previously developed chimera of CHIKV and the closely related Semliki Forest virus (SFV) as a vaccine backbone which expresses antiviral mouse cytokines IFN-γ or IL-21, as an additional mechanism to control infection. In several mouse models, both cytokine-expressing candidates showed reduced footpad swelling and minimal to no systemic replication or dissemination capacity compared to the parental vaccine post-vaccination. Importantly, these candidates conferred full protection from wildtype CHIK disease. Our IFNγ-expressing vaccine showed the most significant attenuation of viral replication. To understand the underlying mechanism, we identified three IFNγ-regulated antiviral genes (Gbp1/2 and Ido1) that were highly upregulated in 3T3 mouse fibroblasts post-infection with the IFN-γ-expressing candidate but not the parental backbone. To further investigate the role of these genes in restricting viral replication and enhance the clinical relevance of our vaccine platform, we redesigned our vaccine to express human IFNγ (hIFNγ) and performed viral growth kinetics in MRC5 human lung fibroblasts. Our vaccine showed reduced viral replication compared to controls and high expression of human GBP1/2/3 was observed post-infection. Overexpression of these genes demonstrated a direct impact on viral replication against wildtype CHIKV. These findings shed light on the mechanism of action of our vaccine and highlight the potential of targeting IFNγ-regulated antiviral genes for developing effective vaccines against CHIKV. Our results provided a foundation for investigating the broad-use application of IFN-γ against other alphaviruses for vaccine or therapeutic design. We evaluated the effects of increasing levels of exogenous hIFNγ on Mayaro virus (MAYV), Ross River virus (RRV), and Venezuelan Equine Encephalitis virus (VEEV). We observed a positive dose-dependent relationship between hIFNγ and decreasing viral titers for all three viruses. Interestingly, we also observed similar patterns of GBP upregulation with MAYV and RRV, both Old World alphaviruses, but not with VEEV, a New World alphavirus. This finding may indicate an alternative IFNγ-stimulated pathway responsible for controlling different alphaviruses. Overall, these studies establish a fundamental role of IFNγ in controlling viral infection and highlight its potential use in both vaccine and therapeutic intervention. While LAVs are a gold standard for developing immunity against a virus, the urgency of responding to an active and deadly pandemic has promoted the use of faster strategies such as mRNA vaccines. Once the viral sequence was known, these vaccines were comparatively quick to produce for SARS-CoV-2 and prevented millions of disease cases at the height of their introduction. However, the emergence of variants of concerns bypassing previous immunization efforts has demonstrated the need for complementary treatments such as antivirals to control disease. To that end, we evaluated several rhodium organometallic complexes as potential antivirals against SARS-CoV-2. We show that two pentamethylcyclopentadienyl (Cp*) rhodium piano stool complexes, Cp*Rh(ICy)Cl2 and Cp*Rh(dpvm)Cl are non-toxic in Vero E6 and Calu3 cells and reduce SARS-CoV-2 plaque formation up to 99%. These complexes have previously demonstrated high antimicrobial activity against multiple antibiotic-resistance bacteria and with our results, support their potential application as pharmaceuticals, warranting further investigation into their activity. / Doctor of Philosophy / The global response to the COVID-19 pandemic, and its far-reaching impact, revealed significant shortcomings in public health preparedness for emerging viruses. Despite efforts to develop vaccines and antivirals to prevent and treat disease, current mitigation strategies have proven insufficient to eradicate the pathogen. The emergence of viral outbreaks caused by viruses such as chikungunya (CHIKV) and SARS-CoV-2 underscores the ongoing threat posed by emerging infectious diseases. Improved countermeasures are urgently needed to address gaps in vaccine and antiviral development. CHIKV is a mosquito-borne virus that has caused millions of infections across hundreds of countries with the emergent potential to become endemic in the US. Currently, there are no vaccines available to the public; therefore, it is important to generate and administer an effective vaccine before further spread of the virus. To this end, we developed innovative live-attenuated vaccines (LAVs) against CHIKV using a weakened chimeric backbone of CHIKV and its close relative, Semliki Forest virus (SFV), along with vaccine-driven expression of antiviral cytokines to control viral replication. Vaccination of highly susceptible mice with these cytokine-expressing vaccines produced significantly decreased side-effects compared to the parental virus not expressing the cytokines. Additionally, these viruses had significantly restricted viral replication capabilities while robustly protecting mice from a semi-lethal CHIKV infection. Our interferon-gamma (IFNγ) expressing vaccine had the greatest impact on viral replication, and we investigated the mechanism leading to this attenuation. To assess the clinical relevance of our vaccine platform, we redesigned the virus to express human IFNγ and identified a specific pattern of IFNγ-stimulated genes that are potentially responsible for limiting CHIKV replication. Furthermore, we demonstrated the broad therapeutic use of IFNγ against other medically relevant alphaviruses. Overall, these studies establish an improved mechanism to create safer vaccines without compromising efficacy and highlight the therapeutic potential of IFNγ against alphaviruses. Lastly, in a collaborative effort to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we also explored and characterized the use of a new class of antiviral drugs. With the advent of increasing drug resistance, it is essential to develop novel and resilient therapeutics. We demonstrated the first antiviral potential of rhodium organometallics, which was previously shown to be effective against multiple antibiotic-resistant bacteria. Two complexes demonstrated high virucidal activity against SARS-CoV-2 and low toxicity in mammalian cell lines. Moreover, these complexes can be further derivatized to improve efficacy, making them a promising new antiviral strategy.

Yes / The aim of the study is to investigate two relatively underexplored factors, namely, the R&D (research and development) capabilities of target firms and the strength of intellectual property (IP) institutions in target economies, that influences the choice of equity ownership in cross border acquisitions (CBAs) undertaken by multinational enterprises (MNEs) from BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) economies. We develop our key hypothesis on foreign market entry through CBAs by incorporating insights from transaction costs economics, the resource-based view and institutional theory to investigate the determinants of full versus partial equity ownership. Using logistic regression estimation methods to a sample of 111 CBA deals of BRICS MNEs in 22 European countries, we find that BRICS MNEs are likely to pursue full rather than partial acquisition mode when target firms have high R&D capabilities. However, the greater the degree of strength of IP institutions in target economies and higher the target firms’ R&D capabilities, the more likely it is for BRICS MNEs to undertake partial, rather than, full acquisition mode. We provide interesting theoretical insights and managerial implications that might underlie some of the key findings on CBAs by emerging market MNEs.

Yes / The complexities surrounding the supply chain logistics for perishable commodities within Bangladesh are extensive. Poor infrastructure, fragmented transportation and corruption compound the operational complexities within this emerging market. This case study analyses many of the day-to-day operational challenges and tensions inherent within Micro-Small-Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) forming the backbone of the Bangladesh socio-economic structure. The drive for transition toward greater levels of sustainability and corporate responsibility is problematic, affecting many levels within an extended and fragmented supply chain. The selected case study highlights the “lived in” geographical, environmental, economic and cultural factors that impact the ability of emerging market enterprises to remain profitable within emergency scenarios whilst transitioning toward a more sustainable model. This study, whilst detailing many of the tensions and critical issues facing MSMEs, highlights the benefits of direct Government intervention, criticality of a leaner and more efficient supply chain and reassessment of financial incentives to drive the transition to a more efficient and sustainable economy.

Yes / Procurement digitalisation can provide significant opportunities for excellence in remanufacturing operations. The close attention of firms is required during the configuration of procurement 4.0 resources for applying front end and base technologies in order to develop the correct set of these resources. Based on Resource Based View theory, this research examines the role of resources influencing procurement 4.0 for driving productivity in remanufacturing operations and circular economy performance. The survey data for this research was gathered from working professionals in South Africa and results reveal that technological resources are necessary in procurement 4.0, which can in turn improve the productivity in remanufacturing operations. An upsurge in performance in remanufacturing operations can enhance the circular economy outcome. To the best of authors’ knowledge, this study is the first to provide insight for researchers, practitioners and academics with an empirical test of digital procurement on remanufacturing operations and of circular economy performance in an emerging economy like South Africa.

Yes / This article examines the mediating mechanism of the relationship between institutional voids (IVs) and inter-firm cooperation and the moderating role of economic adversity in the context of small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) based in emerging markets. The hypotheses are tested using time-lagged survey data from 214 SMEs from Ghana. The findings provide support for the hypotheses by showing that (1) IVs positively influence the use of government research and development (R&D) support, (2) the use of government R&D support mediates the relationship between IVs and inter-firm cooperation, and (3) economic adversity positively moderates the relationship between IVs and the use of government R&D support. The findings contribute to understanding the role of IVs in inter-firm cooperation. Implications for theory and practice are discussed.

No / This book examines prominent issues in the Emerging Markets (EM) from a variety of disciplines in order to make useful societal contributions through knowledge exchange. EMs offer enormous opportunities, but realizing them is both challenging and risky due to inherent uncertainties of such markets. EM’s also have unique characteristics that makes them different from developed countries. This causes implications for both theory and practice. These markets necessitate substantial adaptations of developed theories and approaches employed in the Western world. This book investigates problems specific to emerging markets, and identifies new theoretical constructs, hypotheses (re)development, and emphasizes institutional contexts. The chapters in this book establish new conceptual and theoretical paradigms from multidisciplinary perspectives concentrated in the areas of information systems, electronic government, and digital and social media matters. The book focuses on topics in these areas such as digital enterprises, sustainability, telemedicine, and Information Communication Technology (ICT) and surveys the potential challenges and opportunities that may arise. These concepts and topics covered in this book are vital for making the global economy more equitable and sustainable.

We analyze the effect of bilateral investment treaties (BITs) on bilateral foreign portfolio investment in equity and debt securities. We find that expropriation risk and the level of a BIT’s investor protection are complementary. Applying a Poisson Pseudo-Maximum-Likelihood model to a panel of 60 home and 39 host countries from 2002 to 2017, we find that host countries receive 40% more bilateral equity investment when they protect foreign investors with a BIT. This effect almost doubles when investment protection of BITs is strong, and the political risk of the host country is high.