University of Southern Mississippi
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Funding, Programming, and Community Engagement: How the Mississippi Humanities Council Can Benefit Libraries
No full textA Survey on Faculty Summer Compensation in Accounting
Get PDFMany colleges and universities have paid faculty approximately one-ninth of their annual base salary to teach a summer course for years. Since more accounting schools and departments have become separately accredited by the Association to Advance Collegiate Schools of Business (AACSB), there has been increased pressure to increase research output. Additionally, many states have seen reductions in higher education funding. Therefore, universities have tried to use summer school as a new funding source by increasing enrollment minimums in summer classes and reducing summer school pay rates for faculty. This study incorporates a 26-question survey sent to 580 directors and chairs of accounting programs listed in the 2023-2024 Hasselback Accounting Directory (Hasselback, November 2023). There were one hundred seventy-seven usable responses received. This paper summarizes and analyzes these responses
Religion as a Predictor of Mental Health in a Christian Older Adult Population: Linear and Curvilinear Approaches
No full textOlder religious adults have a unique lived experience at the intersection of two underprivileged identities. Previous studies have researched the impact of religion on mental health within a general aged population. The current study assessed what aspects of religion predict mental health outcomes in an older adult Christian sample. Data from the Wisconsin Longitudinal Study was used to assess religiosity/spirituality within this older adult sample utilizing single-item measures of religiosity/spirituality. Findings of this study indicated statistical significance while it failed to reveal practical significance between religious variables assessed and mental health. Implications for clinical practice, future research, and advocacy are discussed
Early Season Tropical Cyclones Affect Birds Breeding on a Barrier Island
No full textAnimal populations often experience acute natural disturbances, most of which are connected to short—term weather events. Occurrences of early—season tropical cyclones during the peak of the avian breeding season are likely to increase with climate change, which can substantially impact populations of coastal breeding birds at multiple scales. To understand the acute impacts of severe tropical cyclones, we investigated how abundances of breeding birds changed before and after 4 early season named tropical cyclones on a barrier island in the Gulf of Mexico. We detected a change in pre— versus post—storm numbers of breeding birds after 2 out of 4 storms between 2015–2020. Following Tropical Storm Cindy and Hurricane Barry, significant declines in breeding adults ranged from a reduction of 32 Willets (Tringa semipalmata) to 105 Wilson’s Plover (Anarhynchus wilsonia) and 18 Willets to 1,794 Black Skimmer (Rynchops niger), respectively. The lack of response following 2 storms was likely due to the location of the storms relative to the island. Following the 2 storms that did elicit a response by breeding birds, we observed lower abundances in the majority of species after the storm passed. Species life histories and habitat restoration might explain the species—specific responses we observed. Our study documents occurrences of early—season tropical cyclones negatively affecting coastal breeding birds, which could be exacerbated with sea level rise. Additionally, our findings may provide insights regarding island design and nest susceptibility to flooding events, which may aid land managers as well as conservation and restoration planners
Point-of-Care Ultrasound (POCUS): Measuring Inferior Vena Cava (IVC) Diameter and Collapsibility in the Preoperative Setting
No full textAmong the many aspects of preparation required for patients undergoing general anesthesia, preoperative optimization is key. One goal of preoperative optimization is the establishment of adequate preoperative intravascular fluid volume. Inadequate fluid volume can increase surgical risks and lead to adverse patient outcomes. Evidence has demonstrated that using point-of-care ultrasound (POCUS) to assess preoperative surgical patients can diminish the consequences associated with altered fluid status and increase the likelihood of hemodynamic stability. One of the varying methods of POCUS is the point-of-care focused cardiac ultrasound (FOCUS). Using FOCUS, the practitioner can measure the IVC diameter and collapsibility index to determine the need for intravascular fluid volume replacement.
This doctoral project aims to educate current anesthesia providers on how to use POCUS to measure the IVC diameter and collapsibility index in the preoperative surgical patient. Using a pretest/posttest design, 17 anesthesia providers participated in this doctoral project. The effectiveness of an educational module and a best practice guideline was evaluated in this doctoral project. A pretest was provided for all 17 participants, and then the educational module was provided. After the doctoral project was completed, a post test was administered to all participants. The results of the doctoral project demonstrated that
CRNA knowledge and confidence levels in performing POCUS increased after the delivery of the educational module. Limitations to performing this assessment were considered and discussed in this doctoral project
2026 Nominee Bookmarks: 9th - 12th Grade
No full texthttps://aquila.usm.edu/magnolia_book_awards/1015/thumbnail.jp
Scalable High-Resolution Simulation of the Prey-Predator Model, with a Non-Local Consumption of Prey
No full textThis thesis presents a scalable, high-resolution simulation framework for a reaction diffusion prey-predator model with finite hunting ranges. The model’s integral predation term produces stiff, non-local dynamics that present a challenge to traditional explicit or fully implicit solvers. This study overcome this barrier by incorporating a third-order Krylov Subspace Spectral (KSS) time integrator into a Fourier spectral spatial discretization. KSS, which treats each Fourier mode with a frequency-dependent polynomial, avoids the need for solutions of large linear systems in implicit schemes and maintains the computing simplicity of explicit schemes. It also allows for larger time steps compared to stability-limited Runge-Kutta methods. Benchmarking KSS against LEJA interpolation and Adaptive Krylov-Projection (AKP) exponential integrators on grids up to N = 8000 shows it maintains a constant iteration count of four Fast fourier tranforms (FFTs) per iteration, achieves relative errors below 10−8 and delivers result up to 40 times faster. Large-scale simulations show a variety of spatial and temporal behaviors, including stationary prey refuges, periodic and aperiodic traveling waves, and regime coexistence. These findings support and expand prior analytical predictions for non-local predation