Signature of Recent Sediment Accumulating in Prince William Sound, Alaska: A Record of Storms, Earthquakes, and Seasonal Inputs

This study focuses on the development o f provenance signatures for sediments accumulating in Prince William Sound, with an emphasis on interpreting mechanisms of sediment deposition using historical earthquake, wave, river discharge, and glacial outburst flood records. A highresolution sedimentary sequence in Prince William Sound, Alaska contains sediments sourced from local watersheds as a result of seasonal and event-driven sedimentation. This study contributes to the development of paleo-proxies for sediment provenance, earthquakes, shelf sediment resuspension, and Copper River discharge. Geochemical studies of sediment cores and end-member samples using X-ray fluorescence and inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry allows for the development of elemental proxies for sediment provenance during the past ~ 100 years. Seasonal sedimentation is resolved at Hinchinbrook Entrance as a result of high sediment accumulation rates and distinct textural and geochemical changes. Sediments deposited during the winter are derived from shelf sediment resuspension and sediments deposited during the summers are sourced from a complex mixture of the Copper River plume and direct discharge within Prince William Sound. Analyses of a continuous 18-year (1995—2013) wave record reveal that shelf sediment resuspension has a strong seasonality with large waves in the winters compared to the summers. More than 65 % of the sediments at Hinchinbrook Entrance accumulate during the winters, and those sediments are sourced from the shelf with distinct provenance signatures from the Copper River Basin. A north-south transect of sediment cores in Prince William Sound reveal that provenance signatures can be used to identify deposits in the Sound that were initiated by different mechanisms. Deposits in northern Prince William Sound that correspond to large earthquakes occurred in 1912, 1964, and 1983. A similar deposit from ~ 1895 in northern Prince William Sound, prior to historical earthquake records, may also have been initiated from a large earthquake in the 1890’s. Additional deposits in southern Prince William Sound from 1977 and 1992 were likely formed due to an increase in Copper River discharge. The 1977 deposit occurred during a shift to abruptly warmer climate conditions in Alaska that resulted from the well-documented climate regime shift in the North Pacific in 1976—1977. The most recent identifiable deposit in the north-south transect has an age of 2001 with sediments that contain distinct Prince William Sound provenance signatures. Relative to any other season in the 18-year record, the winter of 2001 experienced the highest bottom wave orbital velocity on the Gulf of Alaska continental shelf, the largest area of the shelf with sediment in resuspension, and the shortest time between resuspension events. During a time of minimal seismicity, slope failure within the southern portion of the central channel in Prince William Sound may have occurred due to the extreme waves in the winter of 2001 and could explain the occurrence of this deposit in southern Prince William Sound

Addressing Obstetric Health Care Providers\u27 Nutritional Insight in the Low Socioeconomic Population

Background: During a woman\u27s pregnant state, a diet that is adequate in nutrition is critical to the developing fetus, especially in the lower socioeconomic status population. The healthcare provider is charged with the acute fundamental awareness of this additional factor that can grossly impact pregnancy. Nutritional advice from the health care provider is one of many key points that contribute to the successful outcome of the pregnancy. Purpose: The purpose of this quality improvement project was to develop a standardized, evidence-based practice (EBP) protocol for the management of maternal nutrition, gestational weight gain, and physical activity for provider use at an LSE community clinic. Theoretical Framework: Theory of Planned Behavior Methods: After receiving institutional support for the implementation of the protocol presentation and instruction of the Maternal Nutrition Guideline, pre- and post-surveys were administered to eligible participants. A quantitative descriptive design was used for the project. Results: There were twenty-six respondents for both the pre-and post-survey. The data analysis revealed that two questions revealed the most significant increase between the pre-and post-survey occasions utilizing the Mann-Whitney test and related to physical activity during pregnancy and dietary intake. An independent sample t-test was performed to compare the two occasions. There was a tendency for an increase in the the total score between the pre-and post-surveys, but the difference did not reach statistical significance, which may be related to sample size (t24df = 1.782, p =0.087). Conclusion: A standardized, evidence-based nutritional guideline is a necessary tool to serve as a consistent resource and empower all health care providers to bring awareness and understanding to facilitate positive outcomes to the obstetric patient population for which they care

Creativity for Sale

This project focuses on a business plan and template for developing proposals for potential clients. This covers the history of Creative Problem Solving (CPS); the effectiveness of CPS training; an example design of a workshop; business plan; memorandum of understanding; contract; and a template for fees. This project will add to the richness of the department, and create opportunities for our faculty, alumni, and current students to consult while spreading the CPS process and creativity around the world

Project-Based Learning in Social Statistics: Direct and indirect assessment of student learning outcomes

The two co-authors were students in this statistics course last year and initiated this project based on their observation that some of their peers struggled with the course content. Statistics education literature suggests anxiety and low sense of self-efficacy related to learning statistics are significant barriers to student engagement and learning in undergraduate social statistics courses. We designed and implemented a Problem-Based Learning (PBL) intervention in a social statistics course in Spring 2020. Preliminary analyses from our ongoing project includes both direct and indirect assessment of student learning (demonstrated student learning and statistics anxiety and efficacy, respectively) among a sample of 29 students currently enrolled in a social statistics course at Duquesne University. Our indirect measures of student learning are based on student responses to validated scales in questionnaires administered at the start of term and at Week 11. Improvements in mean anxiety and efficacy scores were observed, but did not reach statistical significance. However, students indicated high levels of satisfaction with the PBL intervention, despite reporting challenges related to the transition to online learning (after closure of the campus due to the COVID-19 Pandemic)

Analysis of Ritalin Addiction and Recovery From Both a Physical and Psychological Lens

We will investigate the physical impacts, both short and long-term effects, of substance use. In doing so, we will frame an argument for the substance\u27s addictive properties as it relates to both its physically addictive and sociological addictive properties. In doing so, a stronger understanding of how an individual can move through the stages of substance use, to abuse, and finally addiction will be reviewed. We will then address current treatment strategies for the substance and how they address or fail to address both the physical and sociological impacts of its use

Exploring Public Speaking Self-Efficacy in the 4-H Presentation Program

Strong communication skills are important in an individual’s personal and professional life; however, research regarding what influences youth’s public speaking self-efficacy is limited. To address this gap, we surveyed youth who participated in a statewide presentation event about their self-efficacy and sources of that self-efficacy. Results show mastery experiences have the greatest relationship to youth’s public speaking confidence. Extension can strengthen youth’s public speaking self-efficacy by increasing the number of presentation opportunities and by removing barriers from participating in existing presentation opportunities

A longitudinal evaluation of an on-reserve methadone maintenance therapy program

Canada’s First Nations population experiences elevated rates of opioid use and negative opioid-related consequences. These rates stem from the long history of colonization that First Nations populations have faced, which has resulted in unique treatment access barriers and a need for culturally and contextually relevant treatment. The purpose of this study was to longitudinally evaluate the first on-reserve methadone maintenance therapy program in Canada through both client questionnaires and staff interviews. Forty-nine clients (mean age of 40, 51% female, 100% First Nations identification) and 11 staff members of the program participated in this study. Overall, clients noted self-improvement; improved quality of life, housing condition, employment status, and family support; and decreases in symptoms of anxiety and depression, overall psychological and physical distress, and drug use and high-risk behaviours. Qualitatively, clients spoke positively of the treatment centre and noted challenges of the program. Staff noted their primary goal as seeing clients become substance free and they also spoke about the importance of the community’s support of the program. Staff noted challenges with funding and reported a desire to see the program continue to help the community until everyone is healed. Overall, the results of the evaluation were positive and show that the program is succeeding in the eyes of the clients and the staff

Disk Radii and Grain Sizes in Herschel-Resolved Debris Disks

(Abridged) The radii of debris disks and the sizes of their dust grains are tracers of the formation mechanisms and physical processes operating in these systems. We use a sample of 34 debris disks spatially resolved in various Herschel programs to constrain them. While we modeled disks with both warm and cold components, we focus our analysis only on the cold outer disks, i.e. Kuiper-belt analogs. The disk radii derived from the resolved images reveal a large dispersion, but no significant trend with the stellar luminosity, which argues against ice lines as a dominant player in setting the debris disk sizes. Fixing the disk radii to those inferred from the resolved images, we model the spectral energy distributions to determine the dust temperatures and the grain size distributions. While the dust temperature systematically increases towards earlier spectral types, its ratio to the blackbody temperature at the disk radius decreases with the stellar luminosity. This is explained by an increase of typical grain sizes towards more luminous stars. The sizes are compared to the radiation pressure blowout limit $s_\text{blow}$ that is proportional to the stellar luminosity-to-mass ratio and thus also increases towards earlier spectral classes. The grain sizes in the disks of G- to A-stars are inferred to be several times $s_\text{blow}$ at all stellar luminosities, in agreement with collisional models of debris disks. The sizes, measured in the units of $s_\text{blow}$, appear to decrease with the luminosity, which may be suggestive of the disk's stirring level increasing towards earlier-type stars.Comment: accepted for publication in ApJ, 22 pages, 7 figure

Reconceptualising Motivation in Adoption and Acceptance Research: Back to Basics

In the adoption and acceptance of technology, the technology acceptance model (TAM) has been a dominant influence. TAM, however, simplifies and trivialises the concept of motivation, (a concept not well developed and used in the IS field) by failing to recognise the fundamental needs influencing behaviour. This, in turn, restricts its use to design and use interventions to enhance adoption and use within an ICT-enabled organisational change project. Given this, this paper will re-conceptualise the concept of motivation by exploring the inner or intrinsic motivation influencing behaviour and will indicate how this motivation underlies the TAM variables. Further, using the concept of participative management we will explore how various organisational interventions might be designed to enhance user motivation to adopt and use a new system. Finally, these interventions are applied to an ongoing action research study to improve the success of implementing a document management system within a non-profit organisation