Observations of an Alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) Nest and Behavior of Hatchlings in Clark County, with anecdotal observations of other Alligator Nests in Arkansas

Historically, the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) ranged through southern and much of eastern Arkansas. By the early 1900s, alligator populations had declined due to unregulated hunting, commercial exploitation, and habitat loss. In 1961, the Arkansas Game and Fish Commission (AGFC) established protection of this species, and in 1967 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service listed the alligator as an endangered species. The AGFC conducted a restocking program from 1972-1984, and the species made a full recovery in Arkansas. Still, little is known about reproductive biology in the state. We observed an alligator nest near Arkadelphia, Clark Co., the mound of which was 1.6 m long, 1.3 m across, and 43-56 cm in height. Because the nest had not hatched by a date late for the species, we opened the nest because some peeping by live hatchlings could be heard. The nest contained 33 eggs, of which 12 hatched the rest were unfertile or died early. We observed behaviors of baby alligators at the time of hatching from a wild nest, and the development of feeding behaviors while maintained in lab. Babies were aggressive and bit debris and each other while hatching, apparently to aid in their exit from the egg. Aggressive behaviors subsided, and young took crickets, earthworms, and shiners as food. After about 3 days, individuals who both grabbed parts of a shiner or earthworm began the spin behaviors to tear apart food items

Paper Session I-C - Commercial Infrastructure Participation in the Space Station Freedom Program

The evolution phases of Space Station Freedom offer the private sector the opportunity to provide commercial infrastructure to NASA and other users of the Space Station. This paper discusses the opportunities for infrastructure beyond the baseline Space Station and describes several approaches to initiating the provision of commercial infrastructure. These approaches include unsolicited proposals from the private sector, commercial development of infrastructure, and commercial operation of infrastructure

Assessing Transformation of Optimizing Ambulatory Surgery Center Services with Telehealth

Background: As technology advances and the ability to provide adequate and convenient surgical procedures improves; the usage of telehealth resources in an Ambulatory Surgery Center setting are evermore capable. The current environment of Ambulatory Surgery Center’s provides a baseline of support to alleviate main operating volume and to absorb more of the outpatient procedures with support from technology and telehealth. Objective: To understand how the telehealth abilities can enhance the efficiency and scope of service of Ambulatory Surgery Centers. To explore if telehealth resources can be utilized to strengthen, improve, and combine tasks that delay progress in the current model. To examine if as telehealth infuses with modern medicine, do the abilities make manual tasks obsolete given the transparent capabilities of telehealth resources. Methods: Utilizing a Value System Map (VSM) model to examine the current state of an Ambulatory Surgery Center, highlights in process delays are discussed and substituted in a later, future state model. Through displaying current vs. future state, areas of improvement are highlighted that provide areas of improvement in an Ambulatory Surgery Center setting. Results: In highlighting workflows with Ambulatory Surgery Center procedures, telehealth substitutions of current manual processes show promising improved efficiency with proper technology. Conclusion: The utilization of telehealth in place of current Ambulatory Surgery Center processes has begun due to recent pandemic of COVID-19; in which support from telehealth capabilities have supported growth in the ASC setting for more comprehensive usages when used accordingly with corresponding telehealth resources

ELCE - Sustainable Serving

Describes the Sustainability Student Worker Network (SSWN) and the connections between ELCE (Experiential Learning & Community Engagement) and sustainability at the College of Saint Benedict and Saint John’s University

Role of a plausible nuisance contributor in the declining obesity-mortality risks over time.

CONTEXT: Recent analyses of epidemiological data including the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) have suggested that the harmful effects of obesity may have decreased over calendar time. The shifting BMI distribution over time coupled with the application of fixed broad BMI categories in these analyses could be a plausible nuisance contributor to this observed change in the obesity-associated mortality over calendar time. OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the extent to which observed temporal changes in the obesity-mortality association may be due to a shifting population distribution for body mass index (BMI), coupled with analyses based on static, broad BMI categories. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS: Simulations were conducted using data from NHANES I and III linked with mortality data. Data from NHANES I were used to fit a true model treating BMI as a continuous variable. Coefficients estimated from this model were used to simulate mortality for participants in NHANES III. Hence, the population-level association between BMI and mortality in NHANES III was fixed to be identical to the association estimated in NHANES I. Hazard ratios (HRs) for obesity categories based on BMI for NHANES III with simulated mortality data were compared to the corresponding estimated HRs from NHANES I. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: Change in hazard ratios for simulated data in NHANES III compared to observed estimates from NHANES I. RESULTS: On average, hazard ratios for NHANES III based on simulated mortality data were 29.3% lower than the estimates from NHANES I using observed mortality follow-up. This reduction accounted for roughly three-fourths of the apparent decrease in the obesity-mortality association observed in a previous analysis of these data. CONCLUSIONS: Some of the apparent diminution of the association between obesity and mortality may be an artifact of treating BMI as a categorical variable

Incorporating Virtual Reality Training in an Introductory Public Speaking Course

This study presents the results of two studies using a virtual reality (VR) public-speaking training simulation as an instructional aid in a basic communication course. Results from the first study suggest that VR practice was associated with higher subsequent speech delivery grades in the course compared to no practice. However, VR practice did not reduce public speaking anxiety (PSA). In a follow-up study, VR practice was compared with other forms of lab-based practice including in front of a mirror and a recorded video session. All forms of lab practice (VR, mirror, or video) were associated with higher speech grades than no practice, but there were no differences between lab-practice conditions in terms of outcomes. Results are discussed in terms of adopting and using virtual public-speaking simulations in large undergraduate public-speaking courses