Extractable Nutrients and pH Values from Nine Soil Associations of Arkansas

Soil samples from the 0-10-cm and 10-20-cm depths were obtained from nine of the 11 soli associations of Arkansas. Sites sampled had a heavy forest cover and showed no evidence of cultivation. Routine soil tests showed that pH values ranged from a low of 4.38 for the Loessial Hills to 5.83 in the Ozark Highlands. Potassium ranged from 69 to 206 kg/ha. Phosphorus was very low in nearly all sites; the extremes were 9 and 83 kg/ha, but most values were less than 30 kg/ha. Calcium ranged from 122 to 1,523 kg/ha. The data indicate that when woodland areas are cleared for cultivation in these nine soil association areas, the soil fertility level will be low

Looking Through a Glass Darkly: Reflections on Power, Leadership and the Black Female Professional

Despite a historical record of activism and leadership, African American women have largely gone unnoticed. Authors Allen and Lewis point out that this same treatment is widely evident today in all fora: the workplace, the classroom, academia, and government. Rather, intelligence, hard work, and technical competencies have either been dismissed or displaced, relegating the African American female leader to inferior status or resulting in wholly disparate and demeaning characterizations

Shared Caregiving Responsibilities of Adult Siblings with Elderly Parents

This paper uses a nonstructural, ordered discrete choice model to measure the effects of various parent and child characteristics upon the independent caregiving decisions of the adult children of elderly parents sampled in the 1982 and 1984 National Long Term Care Survey (NLTCS). While significant effects are noted, emphasis is placed on test statistics constructed to measure the independence of caregiving decisions. The test statistic results are conclusive: the caregiving decisions of adult children are dependent across time and family members. Structural models taking dependencies among family members into account note effects similar to those in the nonstructural model.

Improving Nursing Student Retention: Early Identification of Determinants Causing Attrition in Nursing Academic Programs

Introduction: Student success in higher education is a vital focus for the health of a community and the improvement of an individual’s life. It is equally detrimental if a student leaves an educational program without a degree. The purpose of this project was to improve the early identification of students at risk of attrition in a nursing program by using an electronic dashboard interfaced with a self-reporting student survey to identify determinants that are statistically significant factors for student attrition. Background: The current accreditation benchmark for nursing program completion is 70% for Bachelor of Science in Nursing degrees. Concordia St. Paul University (CSP) College of Nursing had a completion rate of 82.2% in 2021 and 76% in 2022. There is statistical evidence that gender, location of birth, English as the primary language at home, and race/ethnicity are associated with completion of a nursing degree. CSP is dedicated to bettering the lives of students through earlier identification of attrition risk and assisting in the fulfillment of academic goals. Methods: Using Jeffery’s nursing universal retention and success model and the Iowa model of evidence-based practice to promote quality care (IMEBPPQ) for project implementation, I created a framework and guiding principles for the project. Upon entry into the Accelerated Bachelor of Science Nursing (ABSN) program at CSP, students reported demographic data using a survey that interfaced with a privacy-protected electronic dashboard. Seven factors and determinants were determined to be supported by quality research and tracked by the College of Nursing leadership team. Results: Out of 110 students who entered the program in the spring semester of 2023, 47 filled out the self-report survey. The response rate was 50% for the Oregon nursing program and 23% for the Minnesota nursing program. Of the 47 students, 85.1% were doing their nursing program in Oregon and 14.9% were doing their nursing program in Minnesota; both programs are offered through CSP. The following, identified with an asterisk, are nonmodifiable factors that could impact the successful completion of the nursing program and self-reported by nursing students in the ABSN program (n = 47): 21.3% male*; 78.7% female; 25.5% with no previous diploma or degree*; 17% born outside of the United States*; 29.8% with parents born outside of the United States; 12% with English not the primary language in the home*; 17% Hispanic or Latino*, 17% Asian*, 6.4% Black/African American*, and 76.6% White. Evaluation: The project was successful at capturing data that can influence program completion at CSP. By using the self-report survey, administrators were able to identify 17 of the nursing students admitted in the spring semester of 2023 who had two or more risk factors for attrition. These 17 students, or 15% of the newly admitted cohort, were not identified as at risk when entering the nursing program with current academic alert criteria in place

Non-Profit Leaders Confronting Challenges Presented by COVID-19

Little is known about the totality of the challenges non-profit leaders are facing during the COVID-19 pandemic. This study explores how non-profit leaders are adapting to challenges caused by COVID-19. This paper presents an inquiry into participatory action research questions with responses from non-profit leaders’ firsthand experience with the challenges faced during the pandemic. The study collected data from three non-profit leaders in Wisconsin. Crisis management conceptual framework supports this investigation. The findings of this study reveal challenges non-profit leaders face in response to the pandemic include identifying new skills needed by non-profit leaders, and gaining information on the financial jeopardy non-profits face in the future. Three themes emerged in this study: (1) the lack of interactions, (2) the shift in mission and vision, and (3) how to sustain non-profits going forward

Digi-mart: an interactive "SUPER"market that enhances the social and technological condition in Ivory Park

Computer technology has advanced to the point where it has invaded our lives and become embedded in our environment. The problem with this is that not everyone has it, can use it, understands it or finds value in it. This requires an innovative solution that couples technology use in a communal and public space that provides both free access to technology and technology that is meaningful. Interactive architecture suggest new modes of interacting and interfacing between users and their environments offering the potential for richer and more intuitive dialogues between users, each other and our wider environments. Harnessed in a sustainable platform like a supermarket, it can become a manageable grassroots solution that serves the civic, cultural and social needs of a community. If developed in line with the goals of facilitating public information exchange and discourse in the built environment the application of interactive environments to its context seems well suited to contribute towards encouraging active user participation, social interaction and personal empowerment

CRAY mini manual. Revision D

This document briefly describes the use of the CRAY supercomputers that are an integral part of the Supercomputing Network Subsystem of the Central Scientific Computing Complex at LaRC. Features of the CRAY supercomputers are covered, including: FORTRAN, C, PASCAL, architectures of the CRAY-2 and CRAY Y-MP, the CRAY UNICOS environment, batch job submittal, debugging, performance analysis, parallel processing, utilities unique to CRAY, and documentation. The document is intended for all CRAY users as a ready reference to frequently asked questions and to more detailed information contained in the vendor manuals. It is appropriate for both the novice and the experienced user

Modeling Effects of Rainwater Harvesting Systems on Water Yield Increase and Non-Beneficial Evaporation Reduction to Sustain Agriculture in a Water-Scarce Region of China

The northwestern region of China, which has an arid/semiarid climate, relies heavily on agriculture to provide food for the growing population. Climate change is affecting water availability in the region, causing long periods of drought and water scarcity followed by shorter periods of heavy rainfall and excess water availability. The ridge and furrow rainwater harvesting systems (RFRWHS) are a means of solving the problem of water scarcity; the systems can replenish soil moisture, reduce non-beneficial evaporation from bare soils, and increase surface water yield. In such a region, the hydrologic cycle is dominated by soil evaporation, leading to minimal surface runoff and depletion of soil water. For this thesis, hydrologic models were developed to predict the effects of the RFRWH systems on increases in water yield and reduction of non-beneficial evaporation. The results indicate that water yield will increase with increasing ridge width, and the systems with a common plastic mulch or biodegradable plastic mulch are most effective in increasing water yield. These two mulches may be good choices for increasing water availability and adapting to climate change. Potential evapotranspiration (PET) models are a tool used to measure non-beneficial evaporation. PET models results showed that PET tended to increase over the past several years, possibly due to climate change, while the average soil evaporation during the growing seasons (April to October) was reduced by 40% due to the RFRWH systems. This reduced soil evaporation may have increased the water available for crops in the furrows, thus increasing crop yields. The percentage of precipitation lost to non-beneficial soil evaporation may have been reduced as much as 30% by using the RFRWH systems

History: A determinant of diabetes in an American Indian nation

American Indians and Alaska Natives are at an increased risk of developing type 2 diabetes and are more likely than the general U.S. population to suffer from diabetes-related complications. Although the association among diet, physical activity, and diabetes are well established, the social determinants of health provide another explanation of the disproportionate risk of diabetes and diabetes-related disparities among American Indians. Few studies have examined other contributing factors, such as colonisation. In this study, a critical Indigenous framework that includes historical events and policies as primary social determinants to explain diabetes-related disparities within a contemporary American Indian/Alaska Native context was applied. Twenty-eight interviews were conducted with citizens of an American Indian nation to examine the relationship between local history and diabetes. Drawing from this data, a new framework is provided to understand the root causes of the diabetes epidemic that has meaningful application to public health.