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Long-Term Monitoring of Bat Populations in North Dakota
Get PDFThroughout the past few decades, North American bat species have experienced population declines due to White-Nose Syndrome, wind energy, climate change, and other factors. In North Dakota, the presence of wind energy, and the recent arrival of White-Nose Syndrome in 2019, pose serious threats to bat populations in the state. The objective of this study was to gather and analyze long term population data on the different bat species in North Dakota. In Summers of 2019-2021, we recorded bat echolocation call sequences at 60 grid cells established across North Dakota. We compared data across years to determine if any species showed changes in activity level. Occupancy modeling was also used to determine any link between occupancy/detectability and some environmental features for four bat species in 2020. Our results suggest a possible decline in regional populations of species in the Myotis genus. We found no link between occupancy and environmental factors
Influence of Plasma Nuclear Magnetic Resonance Profile, Urea-Nitrogen, Glucose and Non-Esterified Fatty Acids on Dry Matter Intake in Developing Heifers and Mature Cows
Get PDFThe objective of this experiment was to determine if nuclear magnetic resonance (NMR) profiles or blood metabolites could explain dry matter intake (DMI) in developing heifers and/or mature cows in the weeks leading to breeding. A total of 335 heifers and 60 cows were fed a forage-based diet. A general linear model (GLM) was fit for DMI using fixed effects; breed, frame size, birth year. Non-esterified fatty acids (NEFA) had the greatest association with DMI (R2 ranged from 54.4% to 58.1% and 64.4% to 70.6%) in heifers and cows, respectively. The NMR profiles accounted for the smallest amount of variation (51.9% and 55.6%) for rumen metabolism and (52.0% and 55.8%) for cellular metabolism in heifers and cows, respectively. Additional exploration of how to profile NMR data is needed. The models containing NEFA accounted for high levels of variation, where fit plots indicated these predictions could be used to manage animals in distinct groups for DMI
Promoting Confidence in Pressure Injury Management in Rural Long-term Care
Get PDFDespite prevention efforts, pressure injuries (PIs) remain prevalent across care settings and impose significant burden on affected individuals and the entire healthcare system. Many individuals, including those who live rurally and in long-term care (LTC) facilities, face challenges when accessing specialty care, leaving PI management to primary care providers (PCPs) and nursing staff. Minimal training and the myriad of commercially available wound care products contribute to lack of confidence in PI management.
This quality improvement project aimed to promote confidence in management of PIs in LTC residents, through development of a product selection guide, example orders, and separate education for PCPs and nursing staff. The product selection guide and educational presentations were customized according to facility product formularies. Confidence in PI management was evaluated with a qualitative post-education survey.
Evaluation of participant survey responses determined the impact of project interventions. PCPs reported low levels of confidence in PI management, citing lack of education and frequent changes in available products as barriers. PCPs perceived the education and resources as beneficial and anticipated making practice changes as a result, including selecting appropriate products and writing appropriate instructions. Nursing staff cited lack of exposure to PIs, workload, and concerns about product selection and unclear orders as barriers to their confidence. Nursing staff reported notably higher levels of confidence than PCPs and agreed education was helpful, with 63.2% anticipating probable practice change. Nursing staff planned to make changes in specific product use and wound care techniques. Lack of depth and structure in facility product formularies was noted during development of project materials and limited customization of the product selection guide and education.
Results suggest small-scale, facility-specific education, along with customized decision support tools, are effective in promoting PCP confidence in PI management. Nursing staff may benefit more from technical, skills-based education, focused on specific product use and wound care techniques. Additional efforts to create efficient, comprehensive product formularies within facilities are needed to streamline education and further promote confidence in PI management
A Phylogenetic Analysis and Revision of the Teleonemia Costa Generic Complex (Hemiptera: Heteroptera: Tingidae)
Get PDFThe Teleonemia Costa generic complex includes the genera Alveotingis Osborn & Drake, Eurypharsa St?l, Hesperotingis Parshley, Melanorhopala St?l, Teleonemia, and two undescribed genera. A phylogenetic analysis and revision of all included genera is presented. Representatives of most included species were examined and a phylogenetic analysis, based on morphology, was undertaken to determine the interrelatedness of the included taxa. The results show a polyphyletic Teleonemia, and Melanorhopala. A new genus, Paramelanorhopala is erected to accommodate Hesperotingis illinoiensis Drake, and H. occidentalis Drake. Another new genus will be proposed to accommodate some taxa previously placed in Melanorhopala and Teleonemia. The subgenus Amaurosterphus St?l is resurrected from synonymy and itsmorphological concept is greatly expanded to include taxa originally attributed to Americia St?l. Two new subgenera, Teleonemia (Tapinonemia) and Teleonemia (Trichodonemia) , are erected to accommodate the internal phylogenetic structure of Teleonemia.
Teleonemia chilensis (Reed) is resurrected from synonymy from Lepptostyla carmelana Berg. Eurypharsa circumdata (Blanchard, 1842) [new combination, reinstated status], which was placed as a synonym of Tingis nobilis Gu?rin-M?neville 1944, has priority. Hesperotingis antennata borealis Parshley, is resynonymized with H. antennata Parshley. Hesperotingis duryi confusa Drake is resynonymized and Melanorhopala balli Drake is now synonymized under Hesperotingis duryi (Osborn & Drake). Hesperotingis mississippiensis Drake is synonymized with Hesperotingis floridana Drake. Teleonemia artiflava Monte, T. bierigi Monte, T. bondari Monte, T. crassispinosa Monte, T. jubata Drake & Hambleton, and T. ruthae Monte are all synonymized under Teleonemia forticornis Champion. Teleonemia granulosa Monte is synonymized under T. argentinensis Drake & Poor. Teleonemia huachucae Drake is synonymized under Teleonemia nigrina Champion. Teleonemia novicia Drake is synonymized under Teleonemia vidua Van Duzee. Teleonemia sandersi Drake & Hambleton is resynonymized under Teleonemia inops Drake & Hambleton. Teleonemia schildi Drake is synonymized under Teleonemia rugosa Champion. Teleonemia scrupulosa haytiensis Drake is resynonymized under T. scrupulosa St?l. Teleonemia syssita Drake & Cobben is synonymized under Teleonemia sidae (Fabricius). Teleonemia teretis Drake is synonymized under Teleonemia multimaculata Monte. Two new species of Alveotingis, one new species of Hesperotingis, one new species of
Melanorhopala, and thirty nine new species of Teleonemia are described herin
Analysis of Java's Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures in GitHub's Open-Source Projects
Get PDFJava developers rely on code reusability because of its time and effort reduction advantage. However, they are exposed to vulnerabilities in publicly available open-source software (OSS) projects. This study employed a multi-stage research approach to investigate the extent to which open-source Java projects are secured. The research process includes text analysis of Java?s Common Vulnerabilities and Exposures (CVE) descriptions and static code analysis using GitHub?s CodeQL. This study found (a) cross-site scripting, (b) buffer overflow (though analyzed as array index out of bounds), (c) data deserialization, (d) input non-validation for an untrusted object, and (e) validation method bypass as the prevalent Java?s vulnerabilities from the MITRE CVEs. The static code analysis of the compatible seven (7) Java projects out of the 100 top projects cloned from GitHub revealed a 71.4% presence of the array index out-of-bounds vulnerability
Words of Wisdom: A Phenomenological Perspective on Counselor Longevity
Get PDFCounselor development is a career long process yet there is limited research focused on professional counselor development over a full career span. This study aimed to address the gap in the literature and explored the longevity experiences of counselors within the senior phase of professional development. The purpose of this phenomenological qualitative study was to explore mental health counselors' experiences with professional longevity. The primary research question guiding the study was: How do senior counselors experience their professional longevity? Purposeful and snowball sampling helped select five mental health counselors for participation in the study. Data were gathered through one-on-one semi-structured interviews. Participants shared the wisdom they have gained through experience and findings provided insight into understanding what influences longevity in the counseling profession.
Four themes emerged from the data: (1) meaningful work, (2) commitment to learning with subthemes of choosing learning experiences intentionally and consultation and supervision, (3) boundaries maintain balance with a subtheme of self-care as burnout prevention, and (4) authentic presence. Results and recommendations for how to best prepare and support counselors throughout the career span are discussed
Evaluating Human Driving Behavior and Traffic Operation Conditions during Wildfire Evacuation Using Connected Vehicles Data
Get PDFWith climate change and the resulting rise in temperatures, wildfire risk is increasing all over the world, particularly in the western United States, and the communities in wildland-urban interface (WUI) areas are at the greatest risk of fire. Understanding the driving behavior of individuals during evacuating fire-affected WUI areas is important because the evacuees may encounter difficult driving conditions and traffic congestions due to proximity to flammable vegetation and limited exit routes. Existing studies lack empirical data on evacuee driving behavior and traffic operation conditions during a wildfire evacuation. This study used two distinct connected vehicles (CV) datasets that contain lane-level precision historical vehicle trajectory and driving events datasets to investigate the traffic delays and driving behavior of individuals during historical wildfire evacuation events. The results of the study showed that the CV-datasets are a valuable source to accurately evaluate human driving behavior and calculate traffic delays in wildfire-caused evacuations
The Use of Rhetorical Frames to Create Hope During Wars and Genocides: The Case of the Yezidi Women
Get PDFScholars referred to the importance of hope communication during natural disasters. However, we rarely applied hope to the case of wars and genocides. This study investigates how women talk to their captors during wars, and genocides might help to create more hope. I applied Kenneth Burke?s comic frame to the narrative stories of the Yezidi women to investigate the process of building hope in their dialogues with their captors. After identifying texts and analyzing them, I learned that there is a significant connection between the comic frame and the process of building hope during wars and genocides. Besides the comic structure and the amount of violence it brought upon the Yezidi women, the tragic frame also sometimes helped those women to create some hope
Image-Based Hybrid Structural Health Monitoring Through Artificial Intelligence
Get PDFBridges are widely used in human life. Understanding structural performance, assessing structural conditions, and providing in-time decision are crucial components in structural health monitoring (SHM), to avoid catastrophic events and improve public safety. However, traditional SHM needs traffic closure, extensive sensor deployment, and in-contact measurements. The main purpose of this thesis is to develop a vision-based sensor of high accuracy that does not need artificial targets. When the vibration of the UAV itself is removed, the UAV is a convenient method to record video of the vibrations. Based on the recorded images and vibration data, a new deep learning method is developed and used to analyze vibrations of the structure and detect damage locations and conditions automatically.
In the thesis, a non-contact vision sensor system for monitoring structural displacements with an advanced Zernike subpixel edge detection technique is first suggested. A new method to filter the effect of camera motions through background templates is proposed in the study. Several experiments on the MTS machine were performed with different frequencies and amplitudes to verify the method. The results show that filtering of vibrations of the camera significantly improves the displacement monitoring accuracy from 53.0% to 97.0%. Three translations and three rotations of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) were derived through the suggested fast Normalized Cross Correlation (NCC) based template matching method, and their effect on the monitored structural displacement is analyzed. To verify the concept, a series of lab and field experiments were performed. Excellent precision and consistency were obtained for the UAV monitored displacement, the MTS piston motion, and the fixed camera derived displacement.
Further in the thesis, a novel deep learning-based structural health monitoring method was developed, which could detect damages using both defects and vibration data. Two ABAQUS models on a beam and an ABAQUS model on a truss were conducted to test if the proposed CNN model could detect damages successfully. Seven transfer learning methods were compared on detecting crack images. From the outputs of the deep learning models, it is apparent that the AlexNet CNN model with defect images shows higher accuracy in estimating damage status
Screening for Noise Induced Hearing Loss in Agricultural Workers and Farmers
Get PDFAccording to the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health hearing loss is the third most prevalent condition after high blood pressure and arthritis in the United States (U.S.) (NIOSH, 2019). An estimated 22 million U.S. workers are exposed to hazardous noise, making noise induced hearing loss (NIHL) the second most self-reported occupational disease or injury. Although most industries are regulated by government organizations such as NIOSH and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, agriculture does not fall under regulations and policies enacted through these groups. The incidence of hearing loss is high in farmers and agricultural workers, reflecting an increased need for screening. Unfortunately, even with the high prevalence of NIHL in farming populations, there is a gap in pragmatic screening techniques among care providers.
The purpose of this practice improvement project was to a) identify and screen rural North Dakota agricultural workers and farmers in central North Dakota at risk and/or suffering from NIHL; b)provide education related to prevention of noise induced hearing loss and the use of hearing protection devices (HPDs); and c) promote referral to an appropriate health care provider. The Hear X hearScreen audiometric tool was utilized to help establish routine screening in a rural healthcare clinic. The project included using a pre-survey demographics questionnaire, the Hearing Handicap Inventory-Adult questionnaire and the Hear X hearScreen audiometric tool. Using these screening tools individuals? perceptions of hearing loss were compared to their actual hearing loss in a rural clinic setting in Steele, ND.
Screening data revealed that 72% of participants indicated a perceived hearing loss. Upon completion of the Hear X hearScreen audiometric tool, 72% of these same participants tested positive for some form of hearing loss. Over 96% of participants indicated exposure to loud noise greater than 85dB daily. Unfortunately, 36% of participants indicated no hearing protection device (HPD) use. 47% reported using HPD sometimes, and 21% reported wearing HPD most of the time. Zero participants reported wearing HPDs all the time. All participants were provided with verbal and written information regarding the use of HPDs as well as a document listing audiology providers within 100-miles of the rural health clinic if they were interested in further testing or treatment.