There are more than 79 million people in the U.S. currently infected with human papillomavirus (HPV), with an estimated 14 million new infections annually. There is a lack of knowledge about the maternal socioeconomic influences and uptake of the HPV vaccine series. Infection with HPV can cause cervical cancer in women, and there are over 11,000 cervical cancer diagnoses in the U.S. responsible for 4000 deaths annually. Vaccination coverage to prevent HPV infection does not meet the Healthy People 2020 goals of an 80% vaccination rate in the U.S. In this study, associations were tested between maternal SES variables and uptake of the HPV vaccine in male and female adolescents ages 13-17 from 1,125 participants who lived within the estimation areas of New York City, New York and Houston, Texas in 2014. The health belief model was used as the theoretical framework for the study. This was a cross-sectional quantitative study using multiple logistic regression analysis of 4 maternal predictor variables. It was found that 3 of the variables (income, p > .05, education β = -.026, p > .05, and age β = -.096, p > .05) were not significantly related to uptake of the HPV vaccine series, whereas ethnicity was found to be significant (Non-Hispanic White β = .429, p = .029, Non-Hispanic Black β = .587, p = .002, and Non-Hispanic Other β = .586, p =.011). Hispanics were nearly 2 times more likely to be vaccinated than other groups. The potential social change implications of this research are that public health workers can use the findings to develop targeted interventions to increase HPV vaccination uptake and reduce the incidence of cervical cancer.

During the 1970s and 1980s, developing countries, skeptical of foreign investment, imposed several barriers on entry of foreign capital. However, the late 1980s and 1990s marked the onset of globalization, which integrated the whole world into a single global economy. The once-conservative developing nations, realizing the multifarious benefits of foreign direct investment (FDI), began encouraging entry of foreign firms, using various incentives, such as tax holidays, production subsidies, cash grants, labor training grants, and import duty exemptions. Gradually, FDI and foreign aid became two very important sources of foreign capital for these capital-constrained economies. This dissertation is focused on studying if there is any kind of relationship between foreign aid and private investment in recipient countries. FDI is a decision made by foreign investors on the basis of profitability of investment, whereas foreign aid is a political decision made by governments of donor countries on the basis of need for financial assistance by developing countries. We model foreign aid as an exogenous factor in allocation of foreign direct investment, along with other variables, to estimate the effect of aid on investment. Among the factors affecting FDI, infrastructure is considered to be an important one, in allocation of funds across developing countries. This dissertation is arranged as follows. In chapter 2, we introduce the term ``socioeconomic'' infrastructure and create an index, by combining several components of infrastructure, using the multivariate technique of principal components. Prior to creating the index, we employ the technique of multiple imputation to deal with missing data. Our measure of socioeconomic infrastructure contains elements of physical infrastructure, such as transportation facilities, telecommunication facilities, consumption demand for energy and electricity, as well as social infrastructure components, such as voice and accountability, political stability and the absence of violence and terrorism, rule of law, control of corruption, government effectiveness, and regulatory quality. In chapter 3, we develop a theoretical model to address the research question: Does foreign aid impede or encourage foreign direct investment in developing nations? Our theory demonstrates that foreign aid used by the recipient country in financing a public input (known as development aid) encourages foreign direct investment. We also empirically address the same issue by modeling foreign aid as a determinant of foreign direct investment, along with a host of other factors, including our computed index of socioeconomic infrastructure. Our analysis shows that public consumption aid (foreign aid used for financing consumption expenses) does crowd out private investment in current account surplus developing countries, whereas development aid crowds in private investment in the presence of sound macroeconomic, political, legal, and administrative machineries. In chapter 4, we build a panel econometric model to explain the factors underlying socioeconomic infrastructure in developing countries. Our results indicate that countries with higher per capita income, a prominently large government, high investment demand, and large government revenue tend to have better infrastructure.

This applied dissertation was designed to describe and explain the dropout phenomenon occurring in a rural high school in southeastern North Carolina. Caucasian students were dropping out at a disproportionate rate compared to other ethnic groups in the school. Over the last 4 years, 68 students did not graduate with their prospective class at the southeastern rural North Carolina high school research site; approximately 63% of those students were Caucasian, and 37% were non-Caucasian. Caucasian students were the smallest population at the selected high school (40%); however, they accounted for the highest average percentage of dropouts (63%). In 2011, Caucasian students alone accounted for 81% of the total dropouts. In essence, the largest ethnic group not graduating in this rural school district was Caucasian students. In an effort to investigate the academic, social, and home factors (strains) that may have contributed to the high dropout rate of Caucasian students, a study was conducted at the high school. The study involved investigating perceptions of professional staff at the selected high school. Professional staff completed a survey that measured perceptions as to why Caucasian students dropped out a higher rate than other ethnic groups. The general research design answering the 2 research questions for this study was a explanatory mixed-methods research design utilizing quantitative and qualitative data collected sequentially. After calculating descriptive statistics from survey responses (means and frequency of occurrence), performing a chi-square goodness-of-fit test, and conducting focus-group interviews, the results of the study indicated that professional staff members at the selected high school perceived that academic and home and community setting strains, not social strains, were the greatest influence on why Caucasian students were not graduating at the same rate as non-Caucasian high school students at the selected rural high school.

El texto completo de este trabajo no está disponible en el Repositorio Académico UPC por restricciones de la casa editorial donde ha sido publicado. / Purpose: This study analyzes the factors associated with eye care service utilization among Peruvians 50 years of age and older, measured as self-reporting of having undergone examination of visual acuity during the last 12 months. Methods: A secondary analysis of the 2019 Demographic and Family Health Survey (ENDES, for its acronym in Spanish) database was carried out. We estimated the weighted proportion of adults 50 years of age and older that reported having undergone a visual acuity examination in the previous 12 months and the frequency according to the variables of interest. Crude (PR) and adjusted prevalence ratios (aPR) of eye care service utilization were constructed using generalized linear models. Results: Approximately 28.8% of Peruvians 50 years of age and older underwent a visual acuity examination in the previous 12 months. Having a higher education (aPR = 1.79; 95% CI: 1.33–2.40), health insurance such as EsSalud (aPR = 1.54; 95% CI: 1.28–1.87), a previous diagnosis of cataracts (aPR = 1.86; 95% CI: 1.67–2.09) and being part of the richest wealth quintile (aPR = 2.36; 95% CI: 1.74–3.20) were associated with greater utilization of eye care services, while living in the jungle was associated with a lower likelihood of utilization of these services. Conclusion: The unequal distribution of health resources within the territory and socioeconomic gaps among the population could explain our findings. Further efforts are needed to fulfill the eye health needs of the Peruvian population.

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