Michael A. DeDonno

Florida Atlantic University | FAU · Research Methodology & Integrated Medical Science (secondary)

Evidence based information is needed to effectively respond to today's real-life social science challenges. Researchers conduct statistical tests to help interpret the meaning of their evidence-based research. Unfortunately, there remains considerable debate as to the application of appropriate statistical testing. Inappropriate or incomplete stati...

To better prepare for a potential future pandemic, it is important to investigate factors that influenced responses to the recent COVID-19 pandemic. The aim of the present study was to investigate factors that influenced the decision to get the COVID-19 vaccine. The COVID-19 pandemic has affected almost everyone throughout the world. Vaccines are a...

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) was the worldwide leading cause of mortality from a single infectious agent before the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic. The incidence of TB infections has continually declined since 2000, but the COVID-19 pandemic has reversed this trend. In 2020, global health officials reported a 21% drop in documented c...

Objectives: Since the inception of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, the United States has been the leader in cases and deaths. Healthcare workers treating these severely ill patients are at risk of many deleterious consequences. Residents, in particular, may be affected by physical as well as psychological consequences. Because da...

Purpose: SARS-CoV-2 (COVID-19) has continued to be a public health emergency, affecting almost 450 million people worldwide, with a disproportionate significant disease burden in the elderly community. Our main purpose of this study was to provide population specific prognostic markers upon description of demographic factors, clinical characteristi...

Early in the pandemic and prior to the development of the COVID-19 vaccine, prevention measures were promoted to help inhibit the spread of the virus. To optimize adherence to prevention practices, it’s important to understand factors that may influence adherence. A study was conducted in the month of April, 2020, to explore the influence of percep...

Background: Crystalloid bolus administration remains a cornerstone of sepsis management. Studies indicate that geriatric patients with sepsis benefit from guideline-recommended bundles. The effect of fluid timeliness on patient-centered outcomes in geriatric patients with sepsis is unknown. We conducted a retrospective cohort study to assess associ...

This quantitative research study compared the critical thinking dispositions of 91 college students studying in a public university in South East Florida. Forty-one students identified as Chinese and 50 students identified as American. The California Critical Thinking Disposition Inventory (CCTDI) measured these students’ critical thinking disposit...

In this report our primary goals are to quantitate knowledge of patients with biopsy proven advanced colorectal polyps of their need for a repeat colonoscopy and, if so, their knowledge of the proper surveillance interval. These data create both clinical and public health challenges.

In this study, we investigated a profile of faculty who mentor undergraduate researchers at a four-year Hispanic-serving, public research university. Six variables were investigated: ethnicity, gender, age, tenure status, teaching evaluations, and research productivity. Data were compiled from institutional databases. Findings showed a greater perc...

Objective: Many general surgeons devote a significant amount of time and effort to the care of cancer patients. There is currently no standardized, national curriculum in Surgical Oncology for General Surgery residents. The objective of this study was to identify gaps in oncology education among General Surgery residents. Design: An anonymous su...

Undergraduate students who choose to work on research studies do so for a variety of reasons, such as developing research skills for their career and/or increasing their chances of gaining acceptance into graduate school. We believe there is a gap in the literature in exploring research self-efficacy beliefs of undergraduate students. With notable...

As the desire to attend graduate school grows, educators need to ensure students are well prepared for the rigors of a graduate program. To help ensure student readiness, academic institutions impose prerequisites to help foster academic success. However, requiring an excessive number of prerequisites could lead to unnecessary prolongation of time...

INTRODUCTION The most recent guidelines from the American College of Gastroenterology recommend that patients with biopsy proven advanced colorectal polyps undergo repeat surveillance colonoscopy at a minimum of three years following resection. The rationale is based on rates of recurrence and progression to colorectal cancer. In this report we qua...

The purpose of this study was to examine the influence of reading workplace bullying vignettes on negative affect. A within-subjects descriptive design and convenience sample was used. Fifty participants completed the Negative Affect Scale after reading written bullying vignettes and completed the Transportation Narrative questionnaire. Results pro...

Background: Colorectal cancer is the third-most common cause of cancer deaths in the United States, and advanced colorectal polyps are a major risk factor. Although there are no large-scale individual trials designed a priori to test the hypothesis, in meta-analyses of trials in primary prevention of cardiovascular disease, aspirin reduces risk of...

441 Background: Gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel has been reported to prolong survival in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. This drug combination was studied in such patients in the MPACT trial with an average age of enrolled patients being 63. Pancreatic cancer, however, is a disease of the aging with a median age at diagnosis of 70. Reduc...

Incivility and bullying in healthcare can impact care delivery and quality. There are challenges in research to making a direct link between the behaviors and patient outcomes. One way to address the challenges is through the creation of bullying vignettes that induce mood changes that reflect a feeling of being bullied. The purpose of this study w...

In today’s academic environment, there is a tenacious effort to better educate our children. Unfortunately, federal and local budget constraints often limit our ability to create highly effective learning environments. As educators, it becomes our task to identify cost effective activities that will have a positive impact on our student’s education...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the predictive ability of IQ on pure discovery and guided discovery learning of a complex real-world task. Hold'em poker is a game of skill with significant complexity. Its attributes resemble real-life activities such as stock market investing, shopping for a home, and the battles of war. To expl...

Theories of the mind have been proposed since the Greek philosopher Plato (427 – 347 B.C.) compared memories to etchings on a wax tablet. Just as the resilience of a message etched on a wax table is based on such things as hardiness, purity, and depth of the wax, the resilience of our memories are based on factors, such as the significance, clarity...

The purpose of the present study was to explore the influence of bilingualism and a time limit on Scholastic Assessment Test (SAT) performance. Participants were randomly divided into two groups: a time limit group and a no time limit group. Both groups completed an SAT math and critical reading practice test. One group completed the tests under th...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effects of family attributes on college students' academic self-concept. Family attributes include family communication, parental education, family structure, and parental involvement in activities such as arts and crafts, sports, and music. One hundred and fifty-five college students from a d...

Purpose: The present study investigated the effects of dental anxiety and dental visits on oral hygiene practices, which included brushing, flossing and amount of time brushing. Materials and methods: The study included a dental questionnaire developed to measure aspects of dental visits, oral hygiene and dental anxiety. A demographic questionna...

In path-dependent risk taking, like playing a slot machine, the wager on one trial may be affected by the outcome of the preceding trial. Previous studies have shown that a person's risk-taking preferences may change as a result of the preceding trial (win or loss). For example, the "house money effect" suggests that risk taking may increase after...

The Iowa Gambling Task (IGT) is a famous and frequently-used neuropsychological task that is thought to reflect real-world decision-making. There has been some debate, however, about the degree to which the IGT involves cold (cognitive) versus hot (emotional) processing. The present study incorporated 68 healthy individuals and used measures of cog...

The present research was designed to test the relationship between an under-appreciated individual difference measure, trait dominance, and financial risk-taking. One hundred twenty participants completed the trait Pleasure-Arousal-Dominance (PAD) Scales, and then answered five questions requiring the selection between a guaranteed financial paymen...

THE GAME OF POKER has been of interest to researchers in economics1 and artificial intelligence. 2 Its attributes have been compared to striking a bargain in the market and to the clash of war.3 Throughout the study of poker, the question whether performance is due to skill or just to luck has been a topic of much debate.4 In 1986, a professional p...

The purpose of the present study was to investigate the effect of perceived time pressure on a learning-based task called the Iowa Gambling Task (IGT). One hundred and sixty-three participants were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The experimental group was informed that the time allotted was typically insufficient to learn and successfully...

Individuals exhibit personal preferences in gambling games, like slot machines, even when their options are economically equivalent. Here we explore how personality differences affect risk-taking preferences in slot-like games that vary along two dimensions of a risk space, namely the wager amount or “utility” (in a “W-game”) and the winning chance...