Minnesota State University, Mankato
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Examining Short Term Drainage Impacts to Soil Health in Hydric and Non-Hydric Soils of Waseca County, Minnesota
Get PDFSubsurface drainage is implemented throughout the Midwest United States to remove excess moisture from soil to enhance crop growth. Hydric soils are ubiquitous throughout Minnesota and are commonly drained due to their historically saturated conditions. Changing a soil\u27s hydrology can impact its formation and properties. The alteration of physical, biological, and chemical soil properties can occur to both hydric and non-hydric soils, impacting overall soil health. The purpose of this study is to examine the short-term effects of tile drainage on the soil health of hydric and non-hydric soils in southern Minnesota. Research methods include: 1) collect soil-sediment cores to a depth of 1 m from hydric and non-hydric soils in recently tile drained and undrained agricultural fields; 2) quantify physical (i.e., gravimetric water content, bulk density, aggregate stability, particle size), biological (i.e., organic matter content), and chemical (i.e., magnetic susceptibility, pH, soluble salts, cation exchange capacity, nutrient concentrations) properties of cores in 10-cm intervals, and 3) perform statistical analyses to examine relationships among drainage, hydric status, and depth and their impact on soil health. Changes to physical and biological soil properties primarily followed expected patterns as drained soils had significantly lower moisture content and organic matter content (upper 30 cm only) and higher bulk density than undrained soils. Aggregate stability was not impacted by drainage but was significantly higher in hydric soils than non-hydric soils. Magnetic susceptibility was significantly higher in drained soils and non-hydric soils. Cation exchange capacity and calcium and copper concentrations were all significantly lower in drained soils, while copper and magnesium concentrations were higher in hydric soils. Additional chemical properties (i.e., pH, zinc, potassium, iron, and manganese) were significantly different due to drainage-hydric status interactions and when considering variations with depth. Subsurface drainage is extensively used across Minnesota due to the ubiquity of hydric soils, thus understanding the impacts to soil health is imperative for agricultural success and future soil conservation
Personal Temporality
No full textThis is a collection for anyone and everyone. However, I think that it is particularly geared toward people who are constantly aware of time but are unsure what to do with it. Minuscule moments moving toward a certain and unappealing end. This collection is predicated upon the darkness of this struggle but is also interspersed with moments of humor in line with the title of the penultimate poem Sunshine Through Greying Clouds. This collection is meant to take the reader along as I go whistling through life\u27s graveyard. My work relies heavily upon various poetic forms and devices such as rhyme and assonance which I feel lend to the intentional musicality of the collection as a whole. Divided into five sections Personal Temporality is an exploration of lineage and time, thought and time, art and time, post adolescent angst and time, and nature and time. These sections should not be viewed as attempts at universal truth but rather as lenses through which time is experienced by one individual, myself. In terms of subject matter, I would say that this collection falls under the same umbrella as Robert Haas Time and Materials while stylistically veering toward the realm of Edgar Allan Poe if he had a penchant for Robert Frost and John Keats. This collection sits in a place in time wherein I feel as though people seem to be searching for something. I think this work as a whole could be of interest to individuals who recognize that search and would like to have someone else steer the conversation for a moment. The goal being to end up somewhere interesting before our time is gone
Where the Clouds Roll By
No full textA novel-in-progress. The work explores the ebbs and flows of the landscape, music, politics, and in-betweens of Kansas City in 1925
Assessing Dental Hygienist’s Use of Anxiety Reducing Practices Toward Patients with Dental Anxiety
Get PDFThe purpose of this study was to assess dental hygienists\u27 practices regarding anxiety-reducing techniques, their attitudes towards managing patients with dental anxiety, and the extent of their training on the topic. To collect data, an adaptation of the existing survey from the UNC Department of Dental Ecology Survey, was distributed to licensed dental hygienists. The findings of the research questions were analyzed using descriptive statistics in the form of frequencies and percentages. The results of this study indicate a substantial need for enhanced educational resources to better equip dental hygienists in managing patients with dental anxiety. Most participants do not use a dental anxiety screening tool prior to dental appointments. Many participants acknowledged that dental anxiety poses challenges for both patients and dental hygienists, further emphasizing the importance of empathy and communication in promoting stronger patient-provider relationships. A substantial interest in continued education on dental anxiety was evident, with 70% wanting to learn more about screening tools and 78% desiring additional courses on dental anxiety management. Although, participants felt confident in their ability to identify anxious patients. It is recommended that a screening questionnaire be used prior to dental appointments to accurately identify anxious patients
Shrink: Story of a Fat Girl [book review]
No full textArmed with research, personal experience, and stunning art, Rachel M. Thomas shows readers the experience of being a fat woman and how society regularly views, fears, and tries to control fat bodies
Interview with Dr. Travis Lau on What\u27s Left is Tender
No full textJJ Pionke and Jess Schomberg interview Dr. Travis Chi Wing Lau about his new chapbook What’s Left is Tender, poetic form, bringing a disability ethic to slow scholarship, and taiko drumming for pain management
Spectral Theory and the Gelfand Transform
No full textThe overall goal of this thesis is to study spectral and Gelfand theory as it relates to unital Banach and C∗-algebras. In the first part, we develop the necessary algebraic, analytic, and topological background relevant to the content of this work. We also discuss concrete examples of algebras frequently used in the subsequent sections. In the second part of this thesis, we develop spectral theory by first defining the spectrum of an algebra through the characterization of the invertible and noninvertible elements. In particular, we establish properties of the commutative unital Banach algebra ℓ1(Z). We also establish fundamental results such as Gelfand’s spectral radius formula and prove the Gelfand-Mazur theorem. In the last part of this thesis, we study the spectrum, also known as the maximal ideal space, of commutative unital Banach algebras. Through this, we develop the Gelfand transform, which maps elements of the algebra to continuous functions on its spectrum
The Coffee Hag: The Early Years
No full textPatti Ruskey started the Coffee Hag in 1992 and was the proprietor for 15 years. Across from Ardent Milling, down the block from the Reconciliation Park, it has been a community center for more than 30 years now, a place for coffee and vegetarian food, but also a venue for artists, writers, musicians and a safe place for LGBTQ folks. This is the story of the Hag during Patti’s tenure
Volume 45, Issue 1, March 2025 OLAC Newsletter
No full textDigitized March 2025 issue of the OLAC Newsletter