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Stephen E. Meats
No full textPhotograph of a faculty member who served as an editor for the Midwest Quarterlyhttps://digitalcommons.pittstate.edu/yearbookphotos/1055/thumbnail.jp
Enhancing Outpatient Referrals to Heart Failure Clinics
Get PDFHeart failure patients require complex and specialized treatment that can be provided for in a heart failure clinic. Heart failure is extremely complex and the recommendations for management require observation and diligence. Lindberg et al. (2022), recommends patients with heart failure receive specialized care from providers trained in optimizing therapy, especially patients with new onset heart failure, worsening heart failure, or those unable to tolerate first-line treatments in optimal doses. Patients require referrals to the providers specializing in heart failure management. This study created a comprehensive outpatient referral form for outpatient providers utilizing published heart failure referral forms, heart failure guidelines, and input from the hospital’s cardiologists. The Delphi method was utilized to identify key factors from the cardiologists as experts through two rounds of anonymous evaluation of the outpatient referral form. Recommendations for modification from the first round were integrated into the form and presented for the second round. The finalized referral form was provided to the hospital’s cardiologists for use in the referral process
Airpower Theory, Close Air Support, and a New Approach to the Forward Air Controller in the Vietnam War
Get PDFSince the Vietnam War’s conclusion, scholars have stubbornly concentrated on campaigns like LINEBACKER I and II instead of diverse close air support missions. The consequent ignorance of close air support’s maturity and forward air controllers’ contributions during Vietnam obscures the Air Force’s greatest success in Southeast Asia. A new way of looking at airpower in Vietnam is required as few historians have addressed the relationship between evolving close air support practices and United States Air Force (USAF) doctrine. These omissions must be addressed if scholars are to offer counterarguments to the historiographical primacy of interdiction. Otherwise, those who formulate Air Force doctrine risk repeating the mistakes of their predecessors. Despite America’s defeat, close air support played a major role in the USAF’s only doctrinal success—the emergence of a threatening, coordinated tactical air arm. Such innovation from an underfunded program and the growth of the forward air controller role after its lack of incorporation post-Korean War are more than simply impressive. These strengths and the vital usage of tactical air in the Vietnam War disprove assumptions about airpower’s capabilities, application in counterinsurgent campaigns, and contentious relationship with other branches and technologies
Metal Disulfide Fe/Co/Ni as Electrocatalyst for Overall Water Splitting
No full textWater splitting represents a significant milestone in the advancement of renewable energy, providing a sustainable approach to extracting pure hydrogen and oxygen from water. This process plays a crucial role in clean energy production. Transition metal disulfides such as cobalt disulfide (CoS2), nickel disulfide (NiS2), and iron disulfide (FeS2) serve as vital catalysts in electrochemical water splitting, facilitating both the hydrogen evolution reaction (HER) and the oxygen evolution reaction (OER). Their availability, cost-effectiveness, and eco-friendly nature make them promising candidates for improving this process. This study aims to examine how microwave synthesis influences material properties by employing a consistent methodology. Among the synthesized materials, CoS2 and FeS2 exhibited superior electrocatalytic performance compared to NiS2, demonstrating enhanced current output and overall efficiency in water splitting. The resulting catalysts effectively supported both HER and OER in an alkaline medium (1 M KOH). The recorded overpotentials for OER were 358 mV, 321 mV, and 273 mV, while for HER, they were 163 mV, 168 mV, and 230 mV for CoS2, NiS2, and FeS2, respectively, at a current density of 10 mA/cm2
Perceptions of smallholder farmers on usage of drone technology in the southern part of India
No full textAgriculture is a major sector in India, where more people\u27s livelihoods depend on agriculture. Now, with the improvement of drone technology, most of the farmers are using drones in agriculture for crop improvement. This study discusses how smallholder farmers in the southern part of India perceive the use of drone technology in agriculture. The main purpose of this study is to understand the farmers\u27 opinions about using drones in agriculture for spraying pesticides, protecting crops, and reducing costs by compared to traditional methods. This study used a qualitative method to gather detailed information on the use of drone technology. For this method, the study chose five smallholder farmers based on the size of their land and interviewed each one with eight questions. The findings provide farmers, the government, and other consumers with useful information that could lead to better support for drone technology in farms. The results motivate more smallholder farmers to try drones, help the government in establishing training programs, and contribute to making drones more affordable to all farmers. This study also provides guidance to farmers on how to utilize drones to enhance crop production. This study helps us all understand developments in agriculture and gives us ideas for future research
Zn-Assisted Synthesis of M (Mn/Fe/Co/Ni)-N-C Catalysts: For Multifunctional Electrochemical Activity
No full textThe design and development of atomically dispersed M-N-C catalysts (metal (M) supported on nitrogen-carbon (NC) matrix with high multifunctional electrocatalytic performance is desirable but remains a significant challenge. In this study, we synthesized M-N-C catalysts (M = Fe, Co, Mn, and Ni) using Zn-assisted high-temperature treatment and characterized them using various techniques. The prepared catalysts were tested for their electrocatalytic performance towards oxygen and hydrogen evolution reaction (OER and HER) as well as oxygen reduction reaction (ORR) in alkaline media. The results indicated that Mn-N-C catalyst showed higher performance towards both the ORR (E1/2 = 0.90 V) and OER (n10 = 279 mV/cm2 ) as compared to other prepared catalysts. In contrast, Fe-N-C displayed excellent HER activity (n10= 169 mV/cm2 ) as compared to others. The theoretical investigations suggested that Mn-N-C catalyst possessed HOMO energy close to LUMO of O2, facilitating easy electron transfer from HOMO (3d of Mn) to LUMO (pi* of O2), weakening the O-O bond. Whereas, in the case of HER of Fe-N-C catalyst, the results indicated optimum binding energy to remove O2 and H2 from the active site. This work provides a new approach to tuning the electronic and electrochemical features of the M-N-C catalyst, suggesting significant implications for catalyst design in energy conversion devices
Seasonal Use of Abandoned Mined Lands by Non-breeding Birds: Preliminary Findings
No full textDuring winter and migration, birds rely on habitat that provides high-energy food and protection from predators and adverse weather. Abandoned mined lands (AMLs) are disturbed ecosystems that often include a mosaic of successional habitats, some of which may support diverse bird communities. Our goal is to establish a long-term banding study to investigate bird use of AMLs during the non-breeding season. We established 4 study sites in 2023 in a formerly surface-mined landscape in Crawford County, in southeast Kansas. We used constant-effort mist-netting to survey birds each month, including biweekly during fall and spring migration. Thus far, we have captured 57 species on AMLs, including 12 residents and 45 migrants, of which 24 do not breed in the study region. Analysis of seasonal demographics and body condition is ongoing. In December 2024 we began attaching Motus tags to Harris\u27s Sparrow to study their regional movements and habitat use during winter. Our project emphasizes the potential conservation value of AMLs for birds during the non-breeding portions of their full annual cycle
Metagenome analysis of poultry litter collected from commercial farms in southeast Kansas with a focus on antibiotic resistant and foodborne pathogens
No full textThere is growing concern on the use of antibiotics in food animals and poultry. Efforts are in place to bring in a change to the usage of antibiotics in animal husbandry primarily addressing the negative impact on human health besides acknowledging other confounding factors. As per CDC data shows each year in the U.S., Salmonella causes about 1.35 million infections, 26,500 hospitalizations, and 420 deaths while more than 2.8 million antimicrobial-resistant infections occur. The specific aims of this research were to investigate the abundance of antibiotic resistant enterococci as well as to determine the prevalence of pathogenic Salmonella serovers in poultry samples. Poultry litter was collected from 13 different farms around southeast Kansas using the collection kit that contained 5 collection tubes. One gram of each sample was diluted with phosphate-buffered saline and evenly distributed on Neogen Petrifilm Rapid Aerobic Count plate and subsequently based on dilution count plated on mEnterococcus agar. A total of 65 putative enterococcal colonies were streaked on nutrient agar and confirmed at the genus level using esculin hydrolysis. All confirmed isolates will be characterized for antibiotic resistance and virulence profile. A fraction of each litter sample was processed for total DNA extraction using MagBeads FastDNA Kit for feces. DNA concentration was determined using agarose gel electrophoresis and nanodrop. Further experiments will focus on PCR amplification and metagenome sequence analysis. The data obtained from this research will not only address food safety issues but will actively contribute to potential risk mitigation strategies
Reclaiming the Prairie: Natural Resource Management at Prairie State Park
No full textOnce widespread from central Canada to Mexico, tallgrass prairie is now one of North America\u27s most imperiled ecosystems. Historically, tallgrass prairie covered roughly 15 million acres of Missouri. Today, less than 60,000 acres remain, comprising small patches dispersed across the state. The largest of these is Prairie State Park, a 1,619 Hectare piece of tallgrass prairie in Missouri. Perhaps the most pressing issue affecting prairie ecosystems in the Great Plains is woody plant encroachment, including species such as eastern red cedar (Juniperus virginiana), sericea lespedeza (Lespedeza cuneata), sumac (Rhus spp.), and blackberry (Rubus spp.). Eastern red cedar is particularly detrimental to native prairies because it outcompetes herbaceous species by depriving them of water, sunlight, and nutrients. Pittsburg State University students recently completed an internship where they helped revive a degraded section of Prairie State Park that was overgrown with eastern red cedar. Now in the second year of this partnership, park staff mentored the students in a variety of practical skills, including mechanical vegetation control, prescribed fire, all-terrain vehicle (ATV) use, personal protective equipment (PPE) protocols, and resource management strategies. Thanks to the combined efforts of park staff and PSU students, the degraded prairie section has been largely restored
Effect of Ammonium Salts in the Addition of Benzoic Acid to Glycidyl Phenyl Ether
No full textNucleophilic additions to epoxides are an important class of reactions in organic chemistry which have found use in material science, as intermediates, and in the synthesis of biologically important compounds. Many nucleophiles add to epoxides via a SN2 mechanism at the least substituted carbon. However, under acidic conditions addition is at the most substituted carbon via a SN1 mechanism. Included within this class of reactions is the addition of carboxylic acids to epoxides using tetrabutylammonium bromide as the catalyst. These reactions are straight forward and give high yields of the product. However, previous work in our lab using phthalimide as the nucleophile showed a faster reaction rate with tetrabutylammonium fluoride. Due to this result, we were interested in studying the effect of ammonium salts on the addition of benzoic acid to glycidyl phenyl ether. To better understand this reaction and the role of the catalyst, the halide of the ammonium salt was varied (F-, Cl -. Br, and I ), in addition to the alkyl groups length (Bu, Pr, Et, Me). Reaction times were determined by IR spectroscopy and the product ratio was determined using proton NMR spectroscopy. The results, reaction times and product(s), of these studies will be reported