Asteraceae : Ratibida columnifera

Ratibida columnifera is a perennial herb with green stems arising singly or in clusters from a taproot, growing from 30 to 100 cm in height. The stems are hairy and often branched. The simple, alternate leaves are hairy and have many small glands, growing up to 15 cm long and 6 cm wide, deeply pinnately to bipinnately lobed (5-11 lobes), the ultimate segments being linear to oblong and often very unequal. One to a few heads sit atop a long peduncle, with 2 series of reflexed involucral bracts. Each head consists of 4 to 12 drooping, yellow, purplish-red, or purplish-red with yellow bordered ray florets that surround a columnar receptacle that is up to 5 cm long. The column is covered with numerous purplish disk florets, which open starting at the base of the column and moving upward. the achenes are 1.5-3 mm long with short hairs on the inner edge. Prairie coneflower blooms from June to September along roadsides in open prairies and disturbed fields throughout all of South Dakota.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/nativeplant/1026/thumbnail.jp

Apiaceae : Osmorhiza longistylis

Osmorhiza longistylis is a perennial from fleshy roots that are up to 1 cm thick. Stems grow to 1 m tall and can be smooth to densely covered with short hairs. The compound leaves are bi or triternate pinnate. The leaflet blades are ovate to oblong, 3-10 cm by 1-5 cm, the margins have small teeth to larger teeth to pinnate lobes toward the base and are covered with few to a many short hairs. The petioles are long (5-16 cm) and smooth to hairy. The inflorescence is a group of loose umbels both terminal and in the axils of the upper leaves. The umbels are attached by a 5-13 cm peduncle. Each umbel has about 5 umbellets, each umbellet has 8-16 tiny flowers. The flowers have 5 white petals, 5 white-tipped stamens, and 2 white styles which exceed the length of the petals. The fruit is a schizocarp 18-20 mm long. Long-styled sweet-cicely blooms from late April to June in woods thickets and along stream banks in eastern and western South Dakota.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/nativeplant/1152/thumbnail.jp

Nurses\u27 Knowledge, Confidence, and Compliance With an Ambulatory Surgery Discharge Checklist

Background: Preventable errors in healthcare are fueling the growth of patient safety cultures. Checklists have been found to increase discharge accuracy and efficiency and detection of patient safety concerns before discharge. Local Problem: Oversight errors can be traced back to poor communication or outdated workflows. Ad hoc communication and knowledge of physician preferences are no longer sufficient for ensuring complete discharge instructions. Methods & Interventions: A discharge checklist was developed and implemented in an ambulatory surgery department to ensure discharge instructions were complete and accurate. Nurses completed a pre and 3-month post-checklist questionnaire assessing their knowledge and confidence in the discharge process. Compliance was also measured. Results: A statistically significant increase was noted in nurses’ knowledge (p \u3c .001) and confidence (p \u3c .001). Compliance varied with an average of 52%. Conclusions: The discharge checklist added a predictable structured communication process and increased the quality of discharge instructions for patients

Implementation of an Oral Sucrose Protocol for Advanced Practice Providers

Background/Purpose: Pain in infancy due to immunization administration often goes untreated. The pain infants experience leads to negative effects on neurodevelopment and pain response. Needle fear develops in infancy and can extend into adulthood, leading to vaccine avoidance and endemic outbreaks. Methods: In a family practice clinic in an upper Midwest state, an oral sucrose protocol was implemented for use by advanced practice providers (APPs). Prior to education on the protocol, a survey was administered to assess the providers’ knowledge, attitudes, and practice (KAP) in relation to oral sucrose. The providers were educated on the benefits and intended use of oral sucrose prior to the oral sucrose protocol being implemented throughout the clinic. After 8 weeks, the survey was repeated, and the two KAP surveys were compared and analyzed statistically. Results: A statistically significant improvement was found in the knowledge, attitudes, and practices of clinic APPs. Discussion: Due to statistical significance upon analysis, this quality improvement project has the potential to become sustainable practice. It is difficult to make this a regular practice in a rural area due to patient population. Recommendations would be to implement in a large family practice or pediatric clinic to confirm sustainability. Implications for Practice: Oral sucrose has a quick onset and is cost-effective. Implementing an oral sucrose protocol can block pain response in infants receiving immunizations, which may promote adherence to vaccine schedules, improve the health of the population, and decrease healthcare costs related to preventable illness

Fabaceae: Astragalus racemosus

Astragalus racemosus is a perennial herb growing from a branched caudex, with multiple, often branched, erect to ascending stems, 15-70 cm tall that are thinly to densely covered with appressed hairs. The alternate, compound odd-pinnate leaves are4-15 cm long, with short petioles below and sessile above, with stipules 3-12 mm long. there are 11-31 leaflets, 1-4 cm long, the lower leaves having broader lance-elliptic leaflets, and the upper leaves with narrower lanceolate leaflets. The inflorescence consist of axillary racemes with 15-70 papilionaceous flowers on peduncles 3-11 cm long. The flowers are generally nodding on pedicels 2-3.5 mm long. The calyx tube is covered in white, appressed hairs, .bell-shaped, 5-7 mm long, sometimes swollen at the base with 5 awn-like lobes, 2-10 mm long. the 5 petals are white to cream colored with purplish tips and or streaks. The banner is 6-12 mm long, the clawed (constricted at the base) wings 12-19 mm long, and the clawed keel 10-16 mm long. The fruit are triangularly compressed legumes, 3.5-7 cm long, 3-6 mm in diameter, with a stipe on the end that is up to 7 mm long. Alkali milkvetch blooms from May to July on poorer soils in prairies, plains, hillsides and in stream valleys in western South Dakota.https://openprairie.sdstate.edu/nativeplant/1227/thumbnail.jp

The Spatial Ecology of Plains Spotted Skunks in South Dakota: Insights from Species Distribution, Resource Selection, and Co-Occurrence Models

The plains spotted skunk (Spilogale interrupta) is a data-deficient small carnivore native to the central plains of North America that has experienced significant population declines. My dissertation investigates the species’ distribution, habitat associations, and interspecific interactions in South Dakota, providing crucial information for conservation actions. In Chapter 1, I developed ensemble distribution models on a broad scale, incorporating species location data from 1985–2020, environmental factors, and six predictive modeling algorithms. I identified key predictors including mean temperature diurnal range and proportion of area as pasture, and estimated ~31,300 km2 of potential habitat, predominately in eastern South Dakota. In Chapter 2, I tracked radio-telemetered plains spotted skunks in spring and summer of 2021 and 2022. I analyzed resource selection at the point scale with 300 m2 buffers for landcover variables. My mixed-effects logistic regression analysis indicated that plains spotted skunks selected for areas near permanent small-scale farming structures (i.e., rock piles, fences, and farm buildings) and avoided crop cover, with varying responses to human development, wetland density, and hay bales across seasons. My results highlight the plains spotted skunk’s adaptability to different land uses, emphasizing the importance of low-intensity agricultural practices in determining habitat suitability. In Chapter 3, I examined interspecific interactions of plains spotted skunk within their ecological communities. Analyzing live-trap data from spring of 2021 and 2022, I investigated the influence of coyote management strategies on species occupancy probabilities, including the co-occurrence patterns of domestic cats, striped skunks, and thirteen-lined ground squirrels. My results indicated significant associations between areas with systematic coyote removal and occupancy probabilities for each mesocarnivore species. Plains spotted skunks and cats exhibited higher occupancy within areas with contracted annual predator control, while striped skunk occupancy was lower outside of these areas. Despite potential competition and predation effects of striped skunks and cats on spotted skunks, my co-occurrence analyses indicated that spotted skunks occurred independently of both species, while the conditional cooccurrence of thirteen-lined ground squirrels in relation to the presence or absence of plains spotted skunks indicated a potential predator-prey interaction. By integrating finescale habitat analysis and interspecific interactions with broad-scale distribution modeling, using a mix of historical (1985–2020) and contemporary (2021–2022) data, my research my research identified pasture, developed vegetation, and landscape diversity as important predictors for plains skunk habitat, informing targeted conservation efforts. Additionally, specific microhabitat features like rock piles, fence rows, and farm buildings were identified as essential and should be prioritized in management strategies that balance conservation goals with agricultural needs. My research highlighted the need for understanding seasonal and regional variation in the species’ habitat associations for adaptable conservation planning. Finally, my research on interspecific interactions, particularly with coyotes, indicates the importance of considering indirect management effects on conservation management for plains spotted skunk populations

Evaluation of Dietary Fiber Technologies in Sow Diets

Various technologies and alternative ingredients are being developed to increase the nutrient value of fibrous feedstuffs, improve animal performance, and promote sustainable swine production. Fiber-degrading enzymes have been extensively studied in growing pigs, with few studies focused on gestating sows. When considering gestating sows have greater energy digestibility of fibrous feedstuffs than grower pigs, the efficacy of fiber-degrading enzymes needs to be determined for implementation in commercial sow diets. As fiber inclusion in gestation diets benefits sow performance, corn dried distiller grains with solubles (DDGS) are a candidate fiber source for gestation alternative energy ingredient. Functional fibers, such as yeast carbohydrates (YC), also have the potential to benefit both the performance of the sow and her nursing offspring. Thus, the values of these fibrous technologies were evaluated in relation to improving sow feeding strategies. A multienzyme blend at 0.1% inclusion in complete gestation diets increased total tract digestibility of nutrients and energy for gestating sows by 3 to 10%, depending on the dietary neutral detergent fiber level, but produced no effects on the ileal digestibility of amino acids. Enzyme supplementation did increase the energy content of individual feedstuffs; a greater impact was observed in protein concentrates compared to cereal grains. The energy content of a post-protein separation DDGS was approximately 28% greater compared to other common fiber sources. Lower gas production and equal concentrations of volatile fatty acids give value to post-protein separation DDGS as an alternative fibrous ingredient in gestation diets while being environmentally sustainable. An optimal inclusion level of YC product for sow diets was determined to be 0.2% of dietary intake. This recommendation is based on the observations that sows supplemented with YC at 0.2% had greater colostral immunocrit ratio, weaned more of their light-born offspring, and offspring birthed and suckled from the sows supplemented with the 0.2% YC inclusion level had greater serum concentrations of IgA at the time of weaning. Overall, these various fibrous technologies can benefit sow feeding by increasing dietary energy, promoting sustainable swine production, and improving performance of suckling offspring

Friends of the Hilton M. Briggs Library, Fall 2024

Features: Archive Collections Return to Renovated Storage Space in Lincoln HallNotes from the Dean of the LibraryBriggs Library Joins Patent and Trademark ProgramSeptember Events Highlight Importance of Archival Collections and Historical Records to Contemporary Researchhttps://openprairie.sdstate.edu/library_news/1022/thumbnail.jp