A Tale of Two Sandals: Analysis of Two Sandals from the Gordon Keller Collection

This paper presents a comparative analysis of sandals from the Utah State University Museum of Anthropology Gordon Keller collection. The sandals were recovered by Dr. Gordon Keller during fieldwork in southeastern Utah. Through a discussion and analysis of sandal styles and their temporal reaches, how these sandals relate to known specimens and greater Desert West sandal trends is uncovered. One sandal is a plaited vegetable fiber sandal, believed to be yucca. Pending radiocarbon analysis, stylistically the sandal appears to date to approximately 1200 AD. The second is a pair of unusual leather hide sandals, constructed in a shape more common to vegetable fiber square-toe-square heel sandals than to other leather footwear, such as the Promontory Point Moccasins or Fremont moccasins. Based on the style, it is believed to come from the periphery of the Colorado Plateau and date somewhere between 1350 AD to 1540 AD. Project Link: https://storymaps.arcgis.com/stories/8620db4b308049a8ab8747b3145867c

Prescription Opioid Misuse and Addiction: Healthcare’s Contribution to the Opioid Epidemic and What Can Be Done About it

Up to one in four patients undergoing prolonged opioid therapy in a primary care setting battle opioid addiction. In 2020, the CDC found that more than 16,000 deaths involving prescription opioids (limited to natural and semi-synthetic opioids and methadone) had occurred, which is equivalent to about 45 deaths per day. Opioid overdose death can be identified through three distinct waves; increased prescribing of opioids in the 1990’s began the first wave, the beginning of the second wave came in 2010 with a rapid increase in heroin related overdose deaths, and in 2013 the third wave began with a significant increase in synthetic opioid related overdose deaths, specifically fentanyl related which is illicitly manufactured (CDC, 2021). To better understand how the medical system contributes to opioid misuse and addictions, a literature review was conducted. The studies showed that many physicians feel like they are lacking adequate education to prescribe opioids, and often do not do any type of screening for patients to see if they have struggled with prescription misuse or addiction in the past. After looking at potential causes and solutions for excessive opioid prescription in the health care system, it appears that health care providers with more education on opioids prescribed less than those without. The studies also showed that health care providers with more education in emergency medicine, and health care providers that implemented patient screenings also prescribed less opioids overall. Our goal is to understand how the medical system contributes to prescription opioid misuse and addiction and what interventions medical professionals can implement to aid in supporting those with opioid use disorders and addictions. Therefore, based on our Literature Review findings, a study to examine the issue further is proposed

Idaho SHIBA Program Effectiveness Evaluation 2023

Each state and four territories operate State Health Insurance Assistance Programs (SHIPs) to provide free Medicare counseling to eligible beneficiaries, as well as a variety of other services that vary by state. SHIPs rely largely on certified Medicare counselors that either volunteer directly with SHIPs or are affiliated with a wide array of community partner organizations. In most states, volunteers and program activities are managed by small teams of dedicated staff. Idaho’s SHIP is the Senior Health Insurance Benefits Advisors (SHIBA) Program. The Idaho Department of Insurance (DOI) partnered with Idaho Policy Institute (IPI) to conduct a study on the effectiveness of the SHIBA program. This report analyzes four aspects of Idaho’s SHIBA program: program operations, certified Medicare counselor and volunteer management, marketing and outreach, and community partnerships. Data was collected through a variety of methods including surveys with Medicare counselors and past SHIBA beneficiaries and interviews with SHIP staff in other states, Idaho SHIBA staff, and community partner organizations. SHIPs across the country were severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic with the loss of significant numbers of volunteers and community partners. At a time when SHIP staff are struggling to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic, the main takeaway from this research is that SHIPs are supported by a network of staff and volunteers who are committed to providing services that are needed by Medicare eligible Americans. This workforce of staff and volunteers is working to rebuild SHIPs into programs equipped to meet the needs of a growing Medicare eligible population. The goal of this research is to provide Idaho’s SHIBA program and SHIPs across the country with quantitative and qualitative information to help determine how to most effectively offer services, implement certified Medicare counselor and volunteer management, conduct marketing and outreach, and build strong relationships with community partners. Incorporating the best practices listed at the end of each section of this report may lead to enhancing the overall effectiveness of the SHIBA program, more volunteers and community partners, and an increase in annual beneficiary contact forms (BCFs). Key Takeaways: SHIPs are supported by dedicated staff and volunteers who are integral to the success of the program. Providing a greater variety of volunteer opportunities could help Idaho’s SHIBA program increase the accessibility of volunteering for more folks. Word of mouth outreach and referrals from other organizations are the primary way both beneficiaries and volunteers find out about SHIBA. Both are necessary to increase brand recognition and rebuild previous community partnerships. The COVID-19 pandemic resulted in significant declines in certified Medicare counselors, volunteers, and community partners for Idaho’s SHIBA program and most states interviewed for this report. Increasing the annual number of BCFs relies on recruiting more certified Medicare counselors and building more formal community partnerships. It would be beneficial to continue providing both in-person and phone counseling options that are currently available, while developing a plan to expand virtual counseling options to meet the demand of new retirees and increase resources in languages other than English

Where there is no phone: The benefits and limitations of using intermediaries to extend the reach of mHealth to individuals without personal phones in Malawi

The purpose of this study is to identify the benefits and limitations associated with intermediaries to provide access to and increase utilization of an mHealth intervention amongst people without personal phones in Balaka District, Malawi. A mixed-methods approach was utilized including quantitative data on usage and focus groups and interviews with users and volunteers. Community volunteers equipped with mobile phones served as intermediaries and were critical access points to the service for users without personal phones. However, there were challenges maintaining phones and solar panels, sustaining volunteer motivation and understanding how to use the service. While these strategies had a number of limitations, the majority of users (more than 65%) were individuals without a personal phone, who may not have been able to access the service otherwise. Further research is needed to better understand the resources, strategies and effort needed to sustain access through intermediaries in the long-term

COVID-19 Idaho Data Guide

What to consider when observing differences in COVID-19 case reporting: Cases Rates Time Day

On Infrared Excesses Associated With Li-Rich K Giants

Infrared (IR) excesses around K-type red giants (RGs) have previously been discovered using IRAS data, and past studies have suggested a link between RGs with overabundant Li and IR excesses, implying the ejection of circumstellar shells or disks. We revisit the question of IR excesses around RGs using higher spatial resolution IR data, primarily from WISE. Our goal was to elucidate the link between three unusual RG properties: fast rotation, enriched Li, and IR excess. We have 316 targets thought to be K giants, about 40% of which we take to be Li-rich. In 24 cases with previous detections of IR excess at low spatial resolution, we believe that source confusion is playing a role, in that either (a) the source that is bright in the optical is not responsible for the IR flux, or (b) there is more than one source responsible for the IR flux as measured in IRAS. We looked for IR excesses in the remaining sources, identifying 28 that have significant IR excesses by ~20 um (with possible excesses for 2 additional sources). There appears to be an intriguing correlation in that the largest IR excesses are all in Li-rich K giants, though very few Li-rich K giants have IR excesses (large or small). These largest IR excesses also tend to be found in the fastest rotators. There is no correlation of IR excess with the carbon isotopic ratio, 12C/13C. IR excesses by 20 um, though relatively rare, are at least twice as common among our sample of Li-rich K giants. If dust shell production is a common by-product of Li enrichment mechanisms, these observations suggest that the IR excess stage is very short-lived, which is supported by theoretical calculations. Conversely, the Li-enrichment mechanism may only occasionally produce dust, and an additional parameter (e.g., rotation) may control whether or not a shell is ejected.Comment: 73 pages, 21 figures (some of which substantially degraded to meet arXiv file size requirements), accepted to AJ. Full table 1 (and full-res figures) available upon request to the autho

Remotely sensing the morphometrics and dynamics of a cold region dune field using historical aerial photography and airborne LIDAR data

© The Author(s), 2018. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License. The definitive version was published in Remote Sensing 10 (2018): 792, doi:10.3390/rs10050792.This study uses an airborne Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) survey, historical aerial photography and historical climate data to describe the character and dynamics of the Nogahabara Sand Dunes, a sub-Arctic dune field in interior Alaska’s discontinuous permafrost zone. The Nogahabara Sand Dunes consist of a 43-km2 area of active transverse and barchanoid dunes within a 3200-km2 area of vegetated dune and sand sheet deposits. The average dune height in the active portion of the dune field is 5.8 m, with a maximum dune height of 28 m. Dune spacing is variable with average crest-to-crest distances for select transects ranging from 66–132 m. Between 1952 and 2015, dunes migrated at an average rate of 0.52 m a−1. Dune movement was greatest between 1952 and 1978 (0.68 m a−1) and least between 1978 and 2015 (0.43 m a−1). Dunes migrated predominantly to the southeast; however, along the dune field margin, net migration was towards the edge of the dune field regardless of heading. Better constraining the processes controlling dune field dynamics at the Nogahabara dunes would provide information that can be used to model possible reactivation of more northerly dune fields and sand sheets in response to climate change, shifting fire regimes and permafrost thaw.Funding for this research was provided by the U.S. Geological Survey Land Change Science and Land Remote Sensing programs, the U.S. Fish andWildlife Service and the University of Alaska Fairbanks

The infuence of the host microbiome on 3,4- methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA)-induced hyperthermia and vice versa

Hyperthermia induced by 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) can be life-threatening. Here, we investigate the role of the gut microbiome and TGR5 bile acid receptors in MDMA-mediated hyperthermia. Fourteen days prior to treatment with MDMA, male Sprague-Dawley rats were provided water or water treated with antibiotics. Animals that had received antibiotics displayed a reduction in gut bacteria and an attenuated hyperthermic response to MDMA. MDMA treated animals showed increased uncoupling protein 1 (UCP1)and TGR5 expression levels in brown adipose tissue and skeletal muscle while increased expression of UCP3 was observed only in skeletal muscle. Antibiotics prior to MDMA administration significantly blunted these increases in gene expression. Furthermore, inhibition of the TGR5 receptor with triamterene or of deiodinase II downstream of the TGR5 receptor with iopanoic acid also resulted in the attenuation of MDMA-induced hyperthermia. MDMA-treatment enriched the relative proportion of a Proteus mirabilis strain in the ceca of animals not pre-treated with antibiotics. These findings suggest a contributing role for the gut microbiota in MDMA-mediated hyperthermia and that MDMA treatment can trigger a rapid remodeling of the composition of the gut microbiome

Weather effects on the lifecycle of U.S. Department of Defense equipment replacement (WELDER)

Extreme weather has a direct and significant impact on buildings and infrastructure, resulting in billions of dollars of damage each year. This problem continues to grow as climate patterns change and buildings are exposed to new and different hazards than what they were designed to withstand. In order to better plan for the long-range sustainment, restoration, modernization, and eventual recapitalization of these buildings, organizations with large building portfolios, such as the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), must have an awareness of the risks that these extreme weather events present. This research aimed to develop an approach to estimate condition loss and reduction in service life for the components of a building due to extreme weather hazards, to understand the risks that may be present in certain buildings and building systems. To achieve this objective, a damage association matrix was developed that categorizes climate hazards, the damage modes that they produce, and the individual component types impacted. This damage matrix formally links state-of-the-art climate model output, which provides projections of the probability of various climate hazards with a damage effects model that quantifies the consequence on component-level condition and service life. This method is applied to an actual portfolio of buildings in a particular geographic location and with a pre-defined component inventory that comprises the building. This approach can be aggregated to the system-, facility-, and site-level thus helping support billions of dollars in recapitalization decisions related to restoration/modernization of facilities