Photography: The Silent Savior of Breast Cancer Patients

This paper explores the role of digital mammography in diagnosing breast cancer

The Evolution of Women’s Roles in Modern Warfare

Beginning with the Mollies of the Revolutionary war, women have participated in American warfare since the nation\u27s inception. More recently, a key development in women\u27s roles took place two years ago when the United States lifted the ban on female combat. This has resulted in modifications to the military’s approach to war fighting and this process is ongoing. This study focuses specifically on the role of women WWII and the Iraq War, for these wars mark two particularly pivotal moments in their participation in warfare and evolution of their role. Using sources from American military history, especially of WWII and the Iraq War as well as current military policy, this study begins with a brief examination of women\u27s roles in warfare beginning in the Revolutionary War and then focusses on the participation of women in combat zones during WWII and the Iraq War. Specifically, I examine the impact that new technology had on women\u27s roles, the growing necessity of female acceptance in the military, and how as a result, women\u27s roles in warfare have evolved greatly. The official changes in the military roles of women has changed the dynamic between women and men further and has brought women in the United States closer to equal status with their male counterparts. This research complements and expands our understanding of women’s participation in the American labor force as well as their stake in geopolitical and economic issues.https://digitalcommons.morris.umn.edu/urs_2015/1007/thumbnail.jp

CATTLE FEEDER PERCEPTIONS OF LIVESTOCK MANDATORY PRICE REPORTING

Because of the significant investment in the mandatory price reporting program (MPR) by the USDA and by packers, it is important to understand what producers believe about its effectiveness. This study reports results from a survey of feedyards located primarily in Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and Iowa. Results indicate a diversity of opinion regarding MPR effectiveness. On average producers are neutral to negative regarding the value of MPR to them. Interestingly, feedlot characteristics appear to have little systematic relationship to the manager's perceptions regarding the usefulness of MPR.Livestock Production/Industries,

Evaluation of Salmon (<i>Salmo salar</i>) and Rainbow Trout (<i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i>) pin bones using textural analysis and micro X-ray computational tomography

Industrially, common problems arise with the deboning pin bone process, where Atlantic Salmon (Salmo salar) and Rainbow Trout (Oncorhynchus mykiss) fillets, post rigor, are subjected to a pulling process to remove the pin bones from the fillet. This study measured the length of pin bones from two species of fish and two different industrial graded weights, and then used a texture analyser and lCT X-ray to measure the pulling force, break point and volume of the pin bones of both species of fish. Results showed that salmon pin bones required significantly higher pulling force to remove pin bones from the fish fillet when compared with Trout pin bones. Interestingly Trout pin bones were significantly longer and stronger than Salmon pin bones, but had significantly lower volume. This research has progressed the issues surrounding pin boning industrially, however, more studies are required in order to understand if these differences affect the overall deboning pin bone process

Comparison of Trace Mineral Repletion Strategies in Beef Cattle to Overcome a High Antagonist Diet

It was observed that diets with high sulfur and molybdenum decreased markers of copper, selenium, and manganese after 90 d. In a 62-d trace mineral repletion period, steers receiving an injection of Multimin90 had the most rapid improvement of copper and selenium status by d 14, while it took 28 d and 42 d for copper and selenium status to improve in steers supplemented with 150% of national recommended concentrations from either an inorganic and organic blend, or only inorganic trace minerals. Further research is needed to understand the optimal trace mineral supplementation strategy to overcome dietary antagonisms without creating economic loss for producers

The effect of collagenase, water and calcium chloride on the removal of <i>Salmo salar</i> (salmon) and <i>Oncorhynchus mykiss</i> (trout) pin bones

The aim of this study was to determine the influence of the fillet structure on the deboning force required to remove salmon and trout pin bones. Salmon and trout fillets with differing fillet structure were used, in order to study the importance of the fillet structure on the deboning process. In the first test naturally gaping and non-gaping fillets were compared. To confirm the role that the collagen plays within the fillet structure, the fillets underwent series of treatments. Fillets were put into (i) a collagenase solution to remove the collagen in the fillet (ii) a calcium chloride solution to determine if collagen was the main influential factor. Both treated salmon and trout fillets were again compared to untreated fillets from the same batch. The results indicate that collagenase and calcium chloride have a large interaction on deboning force compared to water or no treatments

A High-Performance SurfaceNets Discrete Isocontouring Algorithm

Isocontouring is one of the most widely used visualization techniques. However, many popular contouring algorithms were created prior to the advent of ubiquitous parallel approaches, such as multi-core, shared memory computing systems. With increasing data sizes and computational loads, it is essential to reimagine such algorithms to leverage the increased computing capabilities available today. To this end we have redesigned the SurfaceNets algorithm, a powerful technique which is often employed to isocontour non-continuous, discrete, volumetric scalar fields such as segmentation label maps. Label maps are ubiquitous to medical computing and biological analysis, used in applications ranging from anatomical atlas creation to brain connectomics. This novel Parallel SurfaceNets algorithm has been redesigned using concepts from the high-performance Flying Edges continuous isocontouring algorrithm. It consists of two basic steps, surface extraction followed by constrained smoothing, parallelized over volume edges and employing a double-buffering smoothing approach to guarantee determinism. The algorithm can extract and smooth multiple segmented objects in a single execution, producing a polygonal (triangular/quadrilateral) mesh with points and polygons fully shared between neighboring objects. Performance is typically one to two orders of magnitude faster than the current sequential algorithms for discrete isosurface extraction on small core-count commodity CPU hardware. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the algorithm on five different datasets including human torso and brain atlases, mouse brain segmentation, and electron microscopy connectomics. The software is currently available under a permissive, open source license in the VTK visualization system

Toolkit: Strengthening resilience: Promoting positive school mental health among Indigenous youth

The purpose of this document is to provide tools for k-12 educators, administrators, and mental health treatment providers to better address the learning and behavioral health needs of Indigenous youth in a holistic manner. It is also a resource for faculty working in higher education to prepare future professionals, particularly those planning to work in tribal communities with children and youth. The focus of this document is on the resilience and well-being of Indigenous youth in a historical context. The historical review provides a greater understanding of the role of boarding schools, forced colonization, and assimilation resulting in cultural genocide and their impacts on education. Strengthening Resilience: Promoting Positive Mental Health Among Indigenous Youth identifies how unmet needs can be addressed through a fictitious case scenario, focusing on resilience and culturally responsive practices. The document also addresses the role of trauma to assist educators and providers to advance a greater understanding of the cultural context of Indigenous youth. Strategies and resources are provided to include the Seven Teachings1 and the Circle of Courage2 that can be incorporated into traditional teachings in the k-12 curriculums and adapted in any school. This results in opportunities to teach all youth about the traditional practices of Indigenous populations. Finally, a host of resources are provided that are easily accessible to the reader who wishes to learn more about school-based responses that can be effective in working with Indigenous youth. The resources are based on best practices and include increasing cultural awareness of tribal history, language, and culture within the full continuum of educational and behavioral health response. This document serves as a supplement to the technical assistance efforts provided by Mountain Plains Mental Health Technology Transfer Center (MHTTC) titled Building Capacity of School Personnel to Promote Mental Health in Native American Children and Youth. The focus of the training was to build capacity of school teams to promote positive mental health throughout the school day through embedded strategies in response to mental health needs of children and youth

Indirect genetic effects increase heritability estimates for male and female extra-pair reproduction

The question of why females engage in extra-pair behaviors is long-standing in evolutionary biology. One suggestion is that these behaviors are maintained through pleiotropic effects on male extra-pair behaviors (genes controlling extra-pair reproduction are shared between sexes, but only beneficial to one sex, in this case, males). However, for this to evolve extra-pair reproduction must be both heritable and positively genetically correlated between sexes. Previous studies have suggested low heritability with no evidence for between-sex genetic correlations in extra-pair reproduction. However, these have not considered indirect genetic effects (derived from the behavior of others, IGEs) from the social partner, the influence of the social partner’s genotype on the phenotype of an individual, despite the potential of IGEs to uncover hidden heritable variation. Using data from a closed-house sparrow population with a genetic pedigree spanning two decades, we tested the influence of social partner IGEs on heritable variation and genetic correlation estimates of extra-pair reproduction. We found that the inclusion of IGEs resulted in larger heritable genetic variance for both male and female extra-pair heritability. While IGEs did not change between-sex genetic correlations, we found they reduced uncertainty in those estimates. Future studies should consider the effect of IGEs on the mechanisms of sex-specific extra-pair reproduction

Going beyond two degrees? The risks and opportunities of alternative options

Since the mid-1990s, the aim of keeping climate change within 2 °C has become firmly entrenched in policy discourses. In the past few years, the likelihood of achieving it has been increasingly called into question. The debate around what to do with a target that seems less and less achievable is, however, only just beginning. As the UN commences a two-year review of the 2 °C target, this article moves beyond the somewhat binary debates about whether or not it should or will be met, in order to analyse more fully some of the alternative options that have been identified but not fully explored in the existing literature. For the first time, uncertainties, risks, and opportunities associated with four such options are identified and synthesized from the literature. The analysis finds that the significant risks and uncertainties associated with some options may encourage decision makers to recommit to the 2 °C target as the least unattractive course of action