Mensural Discrimination of the Skulls of Arkansas Peromyscus

Twelve parameters were measured on skulls of four species of Peromyscus from Arkansas. Univariate statistical tests, multivariate analyses of variance, and principal axis factor analyses were performed on the data set and/or subsets in a search for species-level discriminating characters. Total length of skull was found to discriminate between skulls of P. maniculatis, P. leucopus, and a combined group of P. attwateri and P. gossypinus. Furthermore, the ratio of interorbital width and length of nasal bone was found to adequately discriminate between skulls of P. attwateri and P. gossypinus

Development of a questionnaire to assess knowledge in women with gestational diabetes

Women with a history of gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) have a significantly increased risk of developing diabetes mellitus in later life. A lifestyle which includes healthy eating habits, weight control, regular exercise, and stress management has been associated with preventing or delaying the onset of diabetes mellitus and its associated complications. To care for themselves women require educati9n about and knowledge of strategies that have been associated with preventing diabetes. An essential part of education is knowledge assessment Women with GDM have been largely overlooked in the development of instruments to measure knowledge of diabetes. Orem\u27s general theory of nursing guided this research. Orem asserts that self care is necessary to maintain health and well-being and that it is the role of nurses to assist individuals to self care. Nurses assess individuals\u27 needs and identify self care deficits. Knowledge deficits may be identified with the use of questionnaires. This study used a methodological design to develop a questionnaire to assess knowledge in women who have been diagnosed with GDM and to establish the questionnaire\u27s validity and reliability. The questionnaire assessed women\u27s knowledge of their potential for developing diabetes and lifestyle factors that are associated with reducing the risk of developing diabetes. Content validity was established by health professionals involved with caring for women with GDM and a biostatistician. Evidence of construct validity was provided using a contrasted groups approach. The questionnaire was distributed to 62 women. Thirty one women who had been diagnosed with GDM and who had received diabetes education formed the GDM group. The non GDM group was comprised of 31 women who had not been diagnosed with GDM. A paired t-test was performed on the total scores from the two groups. The score from the GDM group (M = 15.9) was significantly higher than the non GDM group score (M = 12.4), t(30) = 2.54,

Paleoenvironmental Implications of Small-Animal Fossils from the Black Mountain Turtle Layer and Associated Layers, Eocene of Wyoming

The Bridger Formation is an Early Middle Eocene deposit in southwestern Wyoming that preserves a rich record of life from North America. Some horizons within the Bridger Formation contain abundant fossil turtle shells, but turtle skulls are rarely found. Previous research focused on one of these fossil-rich horizons, the Black Mountain turtle layer, to develop a model for the abundance and taphonomic condition of the fossil turtles. The proposed model begins with a limestone layer deposited in a lake. Then, an influx of fine-grained volcanic ash (forming the Black Mountain turtle layer) was rapidly deposited into this lake likely causing the mass death of turtles in the lake and rapid (but not instantaneous) burial of the turtles. Subsequent units of the lithofacies association were deposited as the lake was filled with sediment, eventually transforming into a floodplain environment. Although the depositional model developed to explain the concentration of fossil turtles in the Black Mountain turtle layer envisions accumulation within a broad, shallow lake, subsequent investigation of the taxonomic makeup and taphonomic condition of small-animal fossils associated with the fossil turtles showed that terrestrial animals, especially lizards, were the most common taxa present and that these fossils were probably not transported into the system. These findings seemed puzzling in light of the lacustrine model because large numbers of terrestrial fossils would be unexpected in a lake deposit unless transported into the lake. In the current study, I analyzed small-animal fossils from nine sites along exposures of the Black Mountain turtle layer to test the proposed model that the limestone and overlying mudstone were deposited in a broad, shallow lake. Small-animal fossils were identified as specifically as possible and assigned to ecological groups that were identified as either aquatic or terrestrial. The geographic and stratigraphic patterns of the fossils were compared to the predictions of the proposed lake environment. My findings confirmed that the presence of terrestrial fossils, especially lizards, was much higher than would be expected for a lacustrine deposition of the limestone layer and Black Mountain turtle layer. Sites towards the west had the highest proportion of terrestrial fossils, while sites to the east had the highest proportion of aquatic fossils. However, there was no clear gradient in the geographically intermediate sites. The majority of sites had a high proportion of terrestrial fossils in the basal limestone layer with little change in this proportion over time. These findings contradict the proposed model of a lacustrine deposition for the limestone layer and Black Mountain turtle layer. An alternative depositional environment of a fluctuating paludal/lacustrine environment does account for several patterns observed in the small-animal fossils, but does not appear to account well for the fossil turtles. These findings highlight the need for further work in reconstructing the paleoenvironment of the Black Mountain turtle layer. This study also emphasizes the need for inclusion of small-animal fossil data in paleoenvironmental reconstructions

Maintaining Community from a Social Safe Distance

A special report from Harding University\u27s president about maintaining the Harding community while in the midst of the coronavirus

Left exact logic

This note gives a syntactic presentation for partial algebraic theories (see [1] and [3]). The logic, called left exact logic, is interpretable in any category with all finite limits, and it has coherent logic as a conservative extension, which implies a completeness theorem

The Essential Witness of the Church in Times of Crisis

Faith leaders in Wichita Falls can help their congregations better serve the community when they are connected to each other and aware of needs and resources available to them. That is the Need, Problem, Opportunity (NPO) at the center of this research. The Project began with a desire to help the church be a better community partner, especially in the way it served families on the financial margins. Some initial learnings were that many families did not know how to access services provided in the community and many resource providers were reluctant to collaborate with other organizations. As the focus of the Project shifted to the “essential” witness of churches, we learned that many faith leaders in the community did not know each other well, were not actively involved in any meaningful ministry collaborations, and were not aware of how other churches were working in the community. As the Senior Pastor of the First United Methodist Church of Wichita Falls, Texas, I was looking for ways to multiply the impact of my local church, as well as the Christian witness as a whole. Wichita Falls is a community of 102,000 people, with over 100 Christian churches in town, but there is no community-wide network of pastors or ministerial alliance. Any collaboration that happens among churches or pastors is done through smaller circles of personal relationships. I began exploring other ways that connections could be made. My Project is an interactive website designed to connect faith leaders to each other by capturing service opportunities and resources in real time within the community of Wichita Falls, Texas. The goal is to help the church claim its “essential” witness in the community, connecting pastors and churches in collaborative work, in order to demonstrate God’s love and care for all