Purpose: This study examined speech changes induced by deep-brain stimulation (DBS) in speakers with Parkinson's disease (PD) using a set of auditory-perceptual and acoustic measures. Method: Speech recordings from nine speakers with PD and DBS were compared between DBS-On and DBS-Off conditions using auditory-perceptual and acoustic analyses.…

Mosquitoes are both a nuisance and public health threat. In recent decades, outbreaks of dengue, chikungunya, and Zika in Florida have raised awareness of the importance of domestic and peri-domestic container mosquitoes, Aedes aegypti and Aedes albopictus. The synanthropic nature of these species, coupled with their preference for human…

Objective: College student populations are considered at greater risk of contracting influenza due to their close living conditions. Despite this increased risk, college students are reluctant to obtain annual vaccination. This pilot study sought to determine perceptions of students on a college campus who received the annual influenza vaccination…

The importance of honey bees to global agriculture is largely undisputed (Calderone, 2012; Southwick & Southwick, 1992). Simultaneously, commercial beekeeping operations face tremendous industry stressors that have led to increased management requirements and elevated colony losses in Florida and around the United States. in recent decades…

Purpose: To describe the clinical presentation and prevalence of COVID-19 in a collegiate population at the time of initial recognition and testing. Methods: A retrospective chart review was performed of all students tested for COVID-19 at the University of Florida Student Health Care Center between March 9th and April 17th, 2020, comprising the…

Background: Tobacco use is known to worsen asthma management. No studies have investigated how trends in youth tobacco use and related harm perceptions vary by asthma status and sex. This study examined these trends among Florida high school students during 2012-2018. Methods: Data from the 2012, 2014, 2016, and 2018 Florida Youth Tobacco Survey…

Substantial evidence supports comprehensive sex education programs as effective means of promoting adolescent sexual health, but evidence on the effect of state-level sex education policy is inconclusive. Multiple states in the U.S. afford local authority in school policy, and existing literature calls for investigation of the impact of local…

During the 2015-2016 school year, the Florida Department of Health in Duval County hosted Teen Health Centers (TeenHC) at five high schools of Jacksonville providing HIV/STD screening and pregnancy testing. The purpose of this study was to assess the cost-effectiveness of the TeenHC chlamydia screening program and determine at what student…

Integrating physiology core concepts into the clinical years of medical education has been challenging despite efforts. This article describes a fourth-year medical school elective, Advanced Physiology in Critical Care Medicine, that focused on integrating physiology core concepts in a case-based learning approach. The elective used…

Adolescents spend approximately one-third of their day at school. With the growing prevalence of adolescent asthma, 1 in every 10 adolescents copes with asthma throughout the day, including in the school environment. Yet, little is known about the school experiences of adolescent students with asthma. Guided by the social-ecological model, this…

Deaths of despair (DOD) is a new term appearing in public health literature to describe deaths attributable to suicide, liver disease, and drug overdose. In Florida, suicide and liver disease are the 8th and 10th leading causes of death, respectively. Additional mortality data show that the rate of drug overdose deaths in Florida is 12.5% higher…

More than 260 presidentially-declared major disasters have occurred since 2017, affecting every state and several U.S. territories, according to the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). Many of these natural disasters have had devastating effects, including rendering K-12 school facilities unusable for extended periods of time. These…

This paper shares reflections on over 50 live Zoom instructional lessons with toddlers and preschoolers amid the first three weeks of school closures due to COVID-19 in the State of Florida. Reflections resulted in three themes: 1) implementing digital sessions with young children; 2) establishing and maintaining home-based child engagement…

School-based health clinics (SBHCs) offer convenient, free, and much-needed health services to adolescents who have been shown to lack access to preventative care and treatment. With high rates of risky sexual behavior and associated negative health outcomes, SBHCs are particularly effective in providing sexual health services. This article…

Autistic children have a high prevalence of co-occurring mental health, developmental/behavioral, and medical conditions, but research on sex/gender differences has been mixed. We used Florida healthcare claims data to characterize sex differences (female/male) in co-occurring conditions among autistic children ages 1-21 (N = 83,500). After…