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Access to and Utilization of Dental Care Services by Older Adults in Nigeria: Barriers and Facilitators
No full textAims: Nigeria’s rapidly aging population presents urgent challenges for the healthcare system, particularly in oral health, which remains an overlooked aspect of well-being. While older adults are especially vulnerable to dental issues such as tooth loss, periodontal disease, and oral pain, access to care remains limited due to systemic, economic, and cultural barriers. This qualitative study explored the lived experiences of older Nigerians in accessing and utilizing dental care, with the goal of identifying key barriers, facilitators, and policy-relevant insights.
Methods: Fifteen participants aged 50–83 years were purposively selected from urban and peri-urban areas of Ilorin, North- Central Nigeria. Using a semi-structured interview guide, data were collected through face-to-face interviews and analyzed thematically following Braun and Clarke’s methodology.
Results: Three overarching themes emerged: (1) barriers to accessing dental care, including high treatment costs, geographic inaccessibility, mobility challenges, and long waiting times; (2) facilitators of care, such as family support, employment-based insurance, and culturally supportive health beliefs; and (3) perceptions of dental care, with participants recognizing its importance for nutrition, dignity, and overall quality of life. Findings reveal that dental care for older adults in Nigeria is shaped by a combination of structural neglect and individual adaptation. While participants valued preventive care, financial constraints, poor infrastructure, and a lack of geriatric-trained professionals limited consistent access. However, social support networks and respectful provider interactions were critical enablers of care.
Conclusions: This study points to the need for age-inclusive health policies that integrate dental services into primary healthcare, expand insurance coverage, and strengthen community-based outreach. Addressing these gaps is not only a matter of public health, but of equity, dignity, and the right to age well
Genomics-based Taxonomic Refinement of \u3cem\u3eEmesis\u3c/em\u3e Fabricius (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae)
No full textExpanded genomic sequencing of Emesis [Fabricius], 1807 (Lepidoptera: Riodinidae Grote, 1895) reveals additional taxonomic insights. As a result of this study, one subgenus and 10 species are proposed as new (type species or type localities in parenthesis): Sinuata Grishin, new subgenus (Emesis sinuatus Hewitson, 1877) of Exoplisia Godman and Salvin, 1886; Emesis (Mandania) mandaca Grishin, new species (Mexico: Oaxaca); Emesis (Mandania) mantunga Grishin, new species (Ecuador: Tungurahua); Emesis (Tenedia) hidalga Grishin, new species (Mexico: Hidalgo); Emesis (Tenedia) vera Grishin, new species (Mexico: Veracruz); Emesis (Tenedia) nica Grishin, new species (Nicaragua); Emesis (Tenedia) temala Grishin, new species (Guatemala); Emesis (Tenedia) rica Grishin, new species (Costa Rica); Emesis (Diogenia) salvulpina Grishin, new species (El Salvador); Emesis (Aphacitis) aurilena Grishin, new species (Colombia: Magdalena); and Emesis (Aphacitis) spretoides Grishin, new species (Brazil: Rio de Janeiro). Furthermore, our analysis results in the following taxonomic changes: Emesis (Tenedia) zelotes Hewitson, 1872, reinstated status (not a subspecies of Emesis (Tenedia) ocypore (Geyer, 1837)) and Exoplisia (Sinuata) sinuatus (Hewitson, 1877), new combination (not Emesis). Finally, an updated synonymic list of Emesis is provided. The list covers seven valid subgenera and 84 valid species with 13 additional subspecies
Depositing Your Works in the UNL Digital Commons: Advice for Self-Depositors
Get PDFYou have found the UNL DigitalCommons, the university’s institutional repository, and you would like to include some, or some additional, articles or other works in it. If you are not an affiliate of the University of Nebraska–Lincoln or a participant in one of its educational, service, or research programs, then we probably cannot help you. This repository is intended for archiving the scholarly output of the UNL community.
Following is some advice for UNL faculty, staff, students, and associates on the procedures for putting your work online in our publicly accessible UNL DigitalCommons web space, which is search-engine enabled and provides regular reports on the usage (downloads) of your materials. First of all, know that the easiest way to get your works into the Digital Commons is to let our staff do it for you. To take advantage of this service, email your publication list (or entire c.v.) to one of the managers and indicate your desire to have these materials included.
If you feel you cannot wait for us to post your materials, or you are just eager to take control, included here are some tips and guidelines for submitting materials yourself.
We appreciate your participation in the UNL Digital Commons. Since 2005 we have been leaders in the deployment of repositories as agents of change in scholarly publishing. We are one of the country’s and the world’s most successful repositories—based on work produced by this campus and its associated programs
A Machine Learning Framework for Packet Anomaly Detection in Smartgrid Substation Networks
No full textThe increasing reliance on Smart Grid Substation Networks for efficient electricity distribution has amplified cybersecurity vulnerabilities, particularly within Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems. The IEC 60870-5-104 (IEC-104) protocol, widely adopted for communication between Remote Terminal Units (RTUs) and Human-Machine Interfaces (HMIs), lacks inherent encryption and authentication mechanisms, rendering it susceptible to sophisticated cyberattacks. Threats such as False Data Injection Attacks (FDIAs), command injection, covert attacks and replay attacks pose significant risks by manipulating grid control signals, potentially leading to undetected operational disruptions, cascading failures, or system-wide instability. Conventional signature-based Intrusion Detection Systems (IDS) often fail to identify zero-day exploits and adaptive adversarial strategies, underscoring the need for advanced security measures in IEC-104-based SCADA networks.
This research addresses these vulnerabilities through two approaches, both centered on IEC-104 packet data. The first challenge involves designing a comprehensive experimental setup to generate IEC-104 traffic patterns, followed by the injection of malicious data to simulate attack scenarios. This synthetic dataset is used to train and evaluate multiple machine learning models like Random Forest, XGBoost, and a hybrid Convolutional Neural Network with Long Short Term Memory (CNN-LSTM) to detect anomalies with high accuracy. The second challenge involves leveraging a real-world IEC-104 dataset encompassing diverse attack scenarios, employing the same suite of models (Random Forest, XGBoost, and LSTM) to classify malicious activities. Although both datasets focus on IEC-104 packets, they differ in feature composition, enabling a robust assessment of model performance across varied contexts. By tackling these challenges, this study develops and validates a scalable, intelligent IDS framework, enhancing real-time detection capabilities and providing a tailored defense against evolving threats in Smart Grid communication networks.
Advisor: Byrav Ramamurth
A Critical Role for an Honors Community of Practice
No full textThe Honors Community of Practice is a promising form of professional development in honors, where the wide variety of institutions, professional roles, and structures can present challenges to inclusive and relevant programming. The HCoP’s flexible and responsive format allows individuals in different contexts to connect, share resources, and learn from one another. The fluid nature of HCoP discussions, in which participants shift between mentor and mentee roles, highlights expertise in the community and encourages new voices to emerge. Of course, the advantages of Communities of Practice are not confined to honors. Their adaptability and simplicity make it effective programming in a variety of contexts, especially in conjunction with teaching and learning centers. In keeping with NCHC’s vision of honors as a source of innovation in higher education, HCoP may serve as a model for faculty and professional development programming at various institutions, whether for honors or campuswide initiatives.
As HCoP continues, we encourage NCHC members to share invitations with honors staff, faculty, and administrators who may not otherwise be engaged with the organization. HCoP can serve both as a source of specialized expertise for veteran honors educators and as an entry point to national conversations around honors. In this way, HCoP has the potential to strengthen and diversify NCHC’s network of honors practitioners
Transforming Partnerships: Developing a Model for Experiential Learning in Honors
No full textAlthough the collaboration between the University Honors Program (UHP) at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln (UNL) and UNL\u27s Center for Transformative Teaching involves several elements, this essay focuses on one element with significant impact: the development of curricular components and co-curricular programming facilitating students’ engagement with experiential learning. Experience-based education is learning that occurs through direct, hands-on experiences such as internships, research, education abroad, and teaching practicums. When UNL moved toward requiring experiential learning for all undergraduate students, the partnership between UHP and CTT was transformational in facilitating UHP’s building on its existing framework for experiential learning and thus serving as a model as the campus developed additional experiential learning opportunities for all students. Through this partnership, UHP revised the existing experiential learning course to combine theory with practice and, building on lessons learned in this process, infused the Scholarship of Teaching and Learning (SoTL) into three additional initiatives grounded in experienced-based learning
Mitigating Nitrogen Losses: The Role of Enhanced Efficiency Fertilizers in Sustainable Corn Production
No full textNitrogen (N) is essential for crop production, but its inefficient use often leads to environmental losses through nitrate leaching, ammonia volatilization, and nitrous oxide (N₂O) emissions. Enhanced efficiency fertilizers (EEFs), such as nitrification inhibitors (NIs) and urease inhibitors (UIs), have been developed to minimize these losses and improve nitrogen use efficiency (NUE). This research combined a multi-year field experiment and a controlled laboratory study to evaluate how dual-inhibitor fertilizers compare to conventional urea and single-inhibitor formulations in Nebraska cropping systems. The main objective was to understand how nitrogen inhibitors influence N availability, crop performance, and nitrogen losses across different environmental conditions and soil types. The three-year field study, conducted at the Eastern Nebraska Research, Extension, and Education Center (ENREEC), showed that the dual-inhibitor fertilizer (Trident, which contains both a urease and a nitrification inhibitor) improved soil ammonium retention, moderated nitrate fluctuations, and increased corn yield—especially in wetter conditions. In 2024, which had a wet early growing season, the dual-inhibitor treatment increased ammonium concentration by 47% and corn yield by 9% compared to standard urea. However, in 2022 and 2023—both drier years—no major differences in N availability or yield were observed between treatments, highlighting the importance of adequate moisture for the dual inhibitor’s effectiveness. The lab study further explored how single and dual inhibitors perform under controlled conditions. Nitrification inhibitors reduced nitrate leaching by 10–16% more than dual inhibitors, especially in coarse-textured soils. On the other hand, dual inhibitors reduced ammonia volatilization more effectively—by 68–75% compared to single inhibitors. There were no clear differences in N₂O emissions between treatments, suggesting similar behavior for this pathway across products. Overall, these findings point to the importance of context-specific nitrogen management. In sandy soils prone to leaching, nitrification inhibitors may offer better control over nitrate loss. In contrast, in fine-textured or irrigated systems with higher volatilization risk, dual inhibitors can be a more suitable option, provided that moisture is not limiting. These results suggest that there is no one-size-fits-all solution, and nitrogen management should be tailored to local soil and weather conditions to balance productivity and environmental goals.
Advisor: Javed Iqba
A Strategic Audit of CNH Industrial
No full textThis research examines CNH Industrial, a leading global agricultural machinery company, and its strategic approach to innovation, sustainability, and customer loyalty. Operating under brands like CASE IH and New Holland Agriculture, CNH focuses on integrating advanced technology into its products, such as precision agriculture tools, to enhance efficiency, optimize fuel savings, and support sustainable agricultural practices. The company’s comprehensive business model, which spans from product development to financing, fosters strong customer retention and brand loyalty.
Through a differentiation strategy, CNH maintains competitiveness in the face of intense market rivalry, particularly with industry leader John Deere. This study analyzes CNH’s ability to leverage technological advancements, exceptional customer service, and an extensive support network to drive long-term value for consumers. Despite challenges such as global economic disruptions and decreased sales in 2024, CNH’s commitment to research and development, ethical production practices, and customer satisfaction positions the company for sustained growth. This research highlights CNH’s role in shaping the future of agricultural machinery and its potential to lead in innovation and sustainability
Caterpillar Strategic Audit
No full textThis strategic audit evaluates Caterpillar Inc.\u27s business-level and corporate-level strategies, examining how the company maintains its competitive advantage in the heavy machinery and industrial equipment sectors. The research focuses on Caterpillar\u27s hybrid approach, combining differentiation and cost leadership strategies to offer high-quality, durable products while optimizing costs through technological innovation, supply chain efficiencies, and product longevity. The methodology for this audit includes a comprehensive internal and external analysis, incorporating frameworks such as SWOT, PESTEL, VRIO, and Porter’s Five Forces. Additionally, Caterpillar’s strategic initiatives in vertical and horizontal integration, governance structure, and financial performance were assessed. The research also explores the company’s efforts in sustainability, automation, and digital transformation, particularly through recent acquisitions of firms specializing in energy efficiency and autonomous technology. Findings indicate that Caterpillar’s strong brand reputation, extensive dealer network, and commitment to technological advancements contribute significantly to its market leadership. However, challenges such as high R&D costs, competition from industry rivals, and supply chain complexities require ongoing strategic adjustments. The report concludes that continued investment in innovation, digital solutions, strategic leaders, and sustainability initiatives will be critical for Caterpillar’s long-term success and ability to mitigate competitive threats
Application of Philosophy in Substantive Due Process Analysis Focusing on Washington v. Glucksberg
No full textSubstantive due process is widely regarded as the most convoluted and controversial legal concept. For years, the court has struggled to interpret and apply value-based terms in the Fourteenth Amendment, as these terms contain deeper significance beyond the words. Additionally, the court must balance expanding the law to enshrine the abstract values of substantive due process and limiting its interpretation so that it is not “creating law” or imposing its personal beliefs on its decision. This push and pull of defending values and maintaining legitimacy has created significant issues in substantive due process analysis and is the background and basis of my argument. In this paper, I will argue that substantive due process analysis should use the national ethos method of constitutional interpretation and should be informed by the works of the philosophers who influenced the text of the 14th Amendment. To evaluate this abstract argument, I will use the example of Physician-Assisted Suicide as a substantive due process issue. First, I will provide an overview of the three primary methods of constitutional interpretation relevant to this paper. Next, I will emphasize the importance of philosophy in the usage of the national ethos interpretation method. Then, I will briefly analyze the historical evolution of substantive due process. After, I will deep dive into Washington v. Glucksberg as the foundation of the “history and tradition” test for substantive due process. Finally, I will apply the national ethos method to the example of physician-assisted suicide using Locke’s philosophy