Managing change: The challenges faced at CNE

Cherokee Casino Resort (CCR) is relatively new in the gaming industry compared to other casino resort locations such as the resorts in Las Vegas. From its inception less than ten years ago, when legalized gambling was passed in the state of Oklahoma, Cherokee Casino has gone from two bingo halls to seven casinos and a horse track. Included with the seven casinos are truck stops, outposts, motels, and hotels located throughout the state. It has grown from approximately 50 employees to over 3,000 companywide. Along with the rapid growth of casinos and employees, Cherokee Nation Enterprises (CNE) has been able to support other business entities such as Cherokee Nation Businesses (CNB), Cherokee Nation Incorporated (CNI), and Cherokee Nation (CN) to go along with the gaming side of the Cherokee Nation, Cherokee Nation Enterprises (CNE). The overall game plan of CNE is to make the nation self-sufficient. Even with the major success that CNE experienced in such a short time in the industry, CNE must still rely on the federal government for money to support other services that are offered by the Nation. In order to provide the opportunity to become self-sufficient, CNE, as well as its other entities, will have to experience rapid growth and change

Insecticide ear tags numerically improve grazing cattle performance

Stocker cattle grazing pastures during the summer months face challenges due to horn flies, which can result in reduced weight gains and less efficient use of forages. One strategy for controlling horn flies is insecticide-impregnated ear tags. The use of pesticide ear tags may be an effective management practice to improve overall productivity during a grazing season. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of insecticide ear tags as a means of improving growth of stocker calves grazing native pastures in the Flint Hills region of Kansas

Use of Aquaporins to Achieve Needed Water Purity On ISS for the EMU Space Suit System

With the U.S. Space Shuttle fleet retired, the supply of extremely high-quality water 'super-Q' - required for the EMU Space suit cooling on this ISS - will become a significant operational hardware challenge in the very near future. A proposed potential solution is the use of a filtration system consisting of a semi-permeable membrane embedded with aquaporin proteins. Aquaporins are a special class of trans-membrane proteins that facilitate passive transport of water and other substances across a membrane. The specificity of these proteins is such that only water is allowed through the protein structure, and this novel property invites their adaptation for use in water filtration systems, specifically usage on the ISS for the EMU space suit system. These proteins are found in many living systems and have been developed for commercial use today

Absenteeism at Work

As the economic side of the world continues to grow, so do the demands associated with it. In lieu of these demands, absenteeism at work can lead to interruptions throughout a company or with a company’s workflow. The overarching question is, can these be predicted despite being unintentional or habitual? Excessive absences impact the performance of the company and the individual. One guarantee is these absences can derive from a variety of reasons, whether medical or personal. Another factor in absences require looking into personal lives, work load, distance from work. By using the Absenteeism at Work from UCI Machine Learning Repository, we will attempt to build a machine learning model using Python. From this data set and this research, we demonstrate an ability to predict absentee time based on the reason for the absence, while accounting for the general lifestyle of the employee(s). We intend to  evaluate the impacts of the absenteeism on the company and how to bridge the gaps left when a worker is missing. We hypothesize that employees with more severe medical issues will be at the upper range of all absences, and employees with more social occupations are more likely to miss than their less social counterparts. Using R’s modeling capabilities, we present various statistical and graphical observations

An Analysis of the Factors that Influence the Sargassum Migratory Loop

Certain variables suspected to influence the behavior of the Sargassum Migratory Loop System (SMLS) were examined using Robert Webster’s Development and Implementation of Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS). This analysis of the SMLS during the 2014 and 2015 Sargassum seasons was conducted as a case study to assign quantifiable weights to the behavioral characteristics of the SMLS. In 2014, Galveston, Texas experienced the largest landing of Sargassum in recorded history; in stark contrast it received practically no landings in 2015. The nations in the Caribbean Sea experienced an exceptionally large influx of Sargassum during the 2015 season. Based on the observations, it was theorized that among the causative factors for Texas were twenty-six cold fronts that occurred on the Upper Texas Coast in 2014, which held the Sargassum offshore in the nutrient-rich waters of the Gulf of Mexico. This period of suspension afforded the biomass an extended period of growth before landing. Similarly, in 2015 sustained southward fluctuations of the North Atlantic high pressure system forced Sargassum into contact with the nutrient-rich waters of the Orinoco and Amazon flood waters, thus producing enhanced growth of the Sargassum and its containment in the Caribbean Sea. Both of these instances involved specific atmospheric drivers influencing the flow of the Sargassum as it made its way through the SMLS. The areas the Sargassum was suspended in were high in nutrients due to the flushing of runoff from nearby shores. The annual flooding of the Amazon and Orinoco create a plume of neritic water that has been shown to cause increased growth as the Sargassum pass through that portion of the SMLS. The Gulf of Mexico, particularly the area known as the Bay of Campeche is so nutrient-rich that it has been thought to be the source of Sargassum. For this case study the relevant factors include a combination of atmospheric forces known as teleconnection patterns, oceanic currents, and nutrient availability. A greater understanding of the relationship between these variables in the SMLS is a natural and necessary step. The extreme differences in the Sargassum landings between the 2014 and 2015 Sargassum seasons point to which variables drive the Sargassum’s movement to the greatest extent. Analyzing the relationship has increased forecasting accuracy and helps explain why particular seasons are seemingly incongruent with the current understanding of the causes

Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS): Developing the Standard Operating Procedure of Investigating the Hourly Growth Rate of Sargassum While Suspended in the Neritic Coastal waters off of Galveston, Texas. (May 2014)

Sargassum, a pelagic brown alga, is a vital part of marine and coastal ecosystems. It serves as shelter for fish, turtles, and other hatchlings and juveniles. Sargassum acts as a source of food, as it reaches closer to the shorelines, birds will feed on the abundant life that grows throughout its mats. It serves a fundamental role once on the beaches; providing organic material to sustain dune vegetation. Sargassum, while vital to beach health, can become a significant burden to coastal communities if too much washes onto a beach at one time. Prior to making landfall it experiences an extreme spike in biomass increase, and overwhelms the system as it is suspended just off the surf zone. Pelagic brown alga, such as Sargassum, grows in a vegetative manner, absorbing nutrients located within the surface waters through the outer membrane. The nutrient rich coastal Gulf of Mexico waters provide access to such growth-spurring nutrients and serve to accelerate the Sargassum’s growth. This research is addressing the means of attaining an accurate measurement of the growth rate within the depth of closure of Texas coastal beaches. This area is targeted due to the increased mixing of nutrients as predicted by the Hallermeier-equation (Hallermeier 1981).The Sargassum Early Advisory System (SEAS) has the ability to forecast Sargassum events through the observation of the Sargassum within its loop system. In order to increase volumetric accuracy of the forecasts the attainment of an expected rate of growth will be pursued(Webster and Linton 2013). Knowing the expected rate of Sargassum’s growth once entering neritic waters is vital for forecast accuracy in the SEAS project. This information gives researchers the ability to compute the amount of Sargassum projected to make landing with greater volumetric accuracy. This Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) detailing proper measurement attainment methods has been constructed and field tested in the collection of Sargassum’s hourly growth rate data. The preliminary data collected while in this testing phase has indicated a much higher Sargassum growth rate than originally anticipated, as well as revealing some fascinating idiosyncrasies

Shareholder Returns from Supplying Trade Credit

We examine shareholder wealth implications of supplying financing to customers. Robust results demonstrate that excess returns and trade receivables are directly and significantly related. Further evidence indicates the value of receivables is higher for suppliers with stronger motives relating to operating and contracting costs. The results also suggest a discounted value of receivables for financially unconstrained firms. Overall, we conclude that investors recognize trade credit as an effective instrument in mitigating frictions hindering sales growth. Thus, certain suppliers are positioned to derive increased strategic benefits from credit policy

Correlates of Not Using Antiretroviral Therapy Among Transwomen Living with HIV: The Unique Role of Personal Competence

Purpose: This study tested three psychosocial measures for their potential to serve as counseling goals for promoting ART to transgender women living with HIV (TWLH). Methods: Among 69 TWLH, 17.4% were not taking ART; these volunteers were compared to the remainder using multivariate regression analyses. Results: Only one psychosocial measure achieved significance: Personal Competence (Adjusted Odds Ratio = 0.80, 95% CI = 0.67–0.97, P = 0.02). Because this was a continuous measure, assessed on a 7-point scale, the protective adjusted odds ratio of 0.80 represents a 20% reduction in the odds of not taking ART for each unit of increase in this construct. Conclusion: Findings suggest a potential counseling goal for TWLH not taking ART