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2021 Library Research Award Winners

Giuseppina P. Pagnotta and Victor A. Montanaro named recipients of the 2021 Library Research Awards

Giuseppina P. PagnottaGraduate Award

Giuseppina Pagnotta’s project, Translating Evidence to Clinical Practice, was completed for DNP course NU701 taught by Dr. Eileen Shake.  Abstract: Health literacy and communication may affect patient outcomes among adults and pediatric populations. As healthcare professionals, they have the ability to increase these outcomes utilizing educational methods to raise patients’ understanding of information. Patients’ health is dependent upon obtaining, communicating, processing, and understanding necessary information in the attainment of health outcomes. Educational tools pertaining to communication and health literacy may enhance the healthcare professional’s capacity to increase health information understanding. The patients may develop more comprehensive knowledge and skills pertaining to their recovery. The relationship of provider and caregiver may be more positive as a result of communication interventions. A deeper assessment is necessary to appraise the existing literature and create strategies in evidence-based practice in nursing.

Undergraduate Award

Victor Montanaro’s project, Music, the Voice, and Emotions, was completed as an independent study in Psychology for Dr. Greenspan. The paper is a proposal for an undergraduate thesis study on music and speech processing. It is grounded in existing research that outline shared acoustic qualities of music and speech that convey emotions in speech, and also addresses conflicting results in past studies which provide indirect measures of musical experience that do not account for individual differences in musical ability. Instead, the current study uses a behavioral task in order to directly measure musical ability. A relationship between musical ability and emotion recognition in speech is hypothesized, as are differences in emotion recognition between emotion types.

Giuseppina and Victor each receive a $250.00 award check. Congratulations on your outstanding research!