Ataam Taikina: traditional knowledge and conservation ethics in the Yukon River Delta, Alaska

Thesis (M.A.) University of Alaska Fairbanks, 2013This research was conducted in collaboration with rural Yup'ik residents of the Yukon River delta region of Alaska. The thesis explores traditional knowledge and conservation ethics among rural Yup'ik residents who continue to maintain active subsistence lifestyles. From the end of July through August of 2012, ethnographic field research was conducted primarily through participant observation and semi-structured interviews, documenting Yup'ik subsistence hunting and fishing practices. Research participants invited me beluga whale hunting, seal hunting, moose hunting, commercial and subsistence fishing, gathering berries, and a variety of other activities that highlights local Yup'ik environmental knowledge, practices, and ethics. Through firsthand examples of these experiences, this thesis attempts to explore what conservation means through a Yup'ik cultural lens. Documenting Yup'ik traditional knowledge offers an opportunity to shine a light on the stewardship of local people's relationship with their traditional lands. The importance of maintaining direct relationships with the natural world, eating Native foods, and passing on hunting and gathering skills to future generations help develop the narrative of my analysis. In many ways, the cultural heritage of the Yup'ik people are embodied in such practices, providing a direct link between nature and culture.Chapter 1: Introduction -- 1.1. Introducing key research participants -- 1.2. Outline of the thesis -- Chapter 2: Theoretical background -- 2.1. Cultural ecology -- 2.2. Human ecology -- 2.3. Western and Euro-American nature vs. culture -- 2.4. Local knowledge, traditional knowledge, and indigenous knowledge -- 2.4.1. Local knowledge -- 2.4.2. Traditional knowledge -- 2.4.3. Indigenous knowledge -- 2.5. Yup'ik worldview -- Chapter 3: Research methodology -- 3.1. Ethnographic approach -- 3.2. Why Kotlik? -- 3.3. On language -- Chapter 4: An overview of the Yukon River Delta -- 4.1. Yukon River Delta overview -- 4.2. Kotlik (Qerrullik) overview -- 4.3. The Yup'ik people of Western Alaska -- Chapter 5: Documenting Yup'ik subsistence practices -- 5.1.1. Beluga whale hunting ethnographic description -- 5.1.2. Beluga whale hunting overview -- 5.1.3. Beluga whale hunting summary -- 5.2. Seal hunting ethnographic description -- 5.2.2. An overview and description of seal hunting practices -- 5.2.2.1. Bearded seal (Erignathus barbatus nauticus) or maklak -- 5.2.2.2. Ringed seal (Phoca hispida) or nayig -- 5.2.2.3. Seal hunting methods and hunting equipment -- 5.2.3. Seal hunting summary -- 5.3.1. Gathering wild berries ethnographic description -- 5.3.2. Gathering wild berries overview -- 5.3.3. Gathering wild berries summary -- 5.4.1. Yup'ik traditional medicine overview -- 5.4.2. Wormwood (Artemisia sp.) or caiggluk -- 5.4.3. Labrador tea (Ledum decumbens) or Ayug -- 5.4.4. Willow (Salix spp.) or uqviaq -- 5.4.5. Yup'ik traditional medicine summary -- 5.5.1. Yukon fishing ethnographic description -- 5.5.2. Yukon fishing overview -- 5.5.3. Yukon fishing summary -- 5.6.1. Moose ethnographic description -- 5.6.2. Moose hunting overview -- 5.6.3. Moose hunting summary -- 5.7.1. The influence of rising beaver populations -- 5.8.1. Ethnographic description of steam bathing in Kotlik -- 5.8.2. Steam bathing overview -- 5.8.3. Steam bathing and Yup'ik ecological knowledge -- 5.8.4. Steam bathing summary -- Chapter 6: Discussion and conclusion -- 6.1. Discussion -- 6.1.1. Maintaining social connections -- 6.1.2. Training the youth -- 6.1.3. Subsistence hunting practices as reinforcing Yup'ik identity -- 6.1.4. Eating Native foods -- 6.2. Conclusion -- Table -- References -- Appendix

Encouraging knowledge documentation through technology and behavioral-based incentives

This paper consists of an exploration of the technology-based and behavioral-based incentives that are effective in promoting knowledge documentation. It hypothesizes the types of incentives needed for employees to completely and effectively document their knowledge and critically examines the hypotheses through the analysis of a survey of functional business employees

Improvement Rates in Aerobic and Anaerobic Training

The purpose of this research study was to determine the difference in improvement rates between anaerobic and aerobic training. Over two, four week periods VO2max test and Wingate test were administered on 11 untrained students from a Northwest College. The hypothesis was anaerobic training would facilitate greater improvement rates in both VO2max accessed through use of metabolic cart and anaerobic performance assessed through use of a Wingate test. Depending on what systems an individual wants to improve in performance they should specifically stress the desired system. Overall participants who trained aerobically had a 13.01% average improvement (p=0.275) in the VO2max test compared to 8.18% average improvement (p=0.579) in the Wingate test. Participants who trained anaerobically had a 3.77% average improvement in VO2max (p=0.744) and also a 6.39% improvement (p=0.667) anaerobic performance. In conclusion, the statistical hypothesis was rejected because anaerobic training did not produce the most beneficial results due to training. The anaerobic training only had improvement in the Wingate test while the aerobic training had the biggest effect on the VO2max test. Results from this study indicate that individuals can improve at a faster rate in both aerobic and anaerobic capacity with aerobic training

Human Granulocytic Ehrlichiosis Complicating Early Pregnancy

Background. The goal of this case is to review the zoonotic infection, human granulocytic ehrlichiosis, presenting with pyrexia. Case. A 22-year-old multigravid female presented to the emergency department with a painful skin rash, high fever, and severe myalgias. The patient underwent a diagnostic evaluation for zoonotic infections due to her geographical and seasonal risk factors. Treatment of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis was successful though the patient spontaneously aborted presumably due to the severity of the acute illness. Conclusion. Treatment of human granulocytic ehrlichiosis in pregnancy presents unique challenges. Management of pyrexia during pregnancy is limited to external cooling in the setting of thrombocytopenia and elevated aminotransferases. Extensive counseling regarding teratogenic potential of medications allows the patient to weigh the pros and cons of treatment

Analyzing the Clinical Outcomes of a Rapid Mass Conversion From Rosuvastatin to Atorvastatin in a VA Medical Center Outpatient Setting

Background: Medication conversions occur frequently within the Veterans Health Administration. This manual process involves several pharmacists over an extended period of time. Macros can automate the process of converting a list of patients from one medication to a therapeutic alternative. Objectives: To develop a macro that would convert active rosuvastatin prescriptions to atorvastatin and to create an electronic dashboard to evaluate clinical outcomes. Methods: A conversion protocol was approved by the Pharmacy & Therapeutics Committee. A macro was developed using Microsoft Visual Basic. Outpatients with active prescriptions for rosuvastatin were reviewed and excluded if they had a documented allergy to atorvastatin or a significant drug-drug interaction. An electronic dashboard was created to compare safety and efficacy endpoints pre- and postconversion. Primary endpoints included low-density lipoprotein (LDL), creatine phosphokinase (CPK), aspartate transaminase (AST), alanine transaminase (ALT), and alkaline phosphatase. Secondary endpoints evaluated cardiovascular events, including the incidences of myocardial infarction, stroke, and stent placement. Results: The macro was used to convert 1520 patients from rosuvastatin to atorvastatin over a period of 20 hours saving $5760 in pharmacist labor. There were no significant changes in LDL, AST, ALT, or secondary endpoints (P > .05). There was a significant increase in alkaline phosphatase (P = .0035). Conclusions: A rapid mass medication conversion from rosuvastatin to atorvastatin saved time and money and resulted in no clinically significant changes in safety or efficacy endpoints. Macros and clinical dashboards can be applied to any Veterans Health Administration facility

Combining orthopaedic special tests to improve diagnosis of shoulder pathology.

This document is the accepted manuscript version of the following article: Eric J. Hegedus, et al, 'Combining orthopedic special tests to improve diagnosis of shoulder pathology', Physical Therapy in Sport, Vol. 16 (2): 87-92, May 2015, doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ptsp.2014.08.001. This manuscript version is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/), which permits non-commercial re-use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, and is not altered, transformed, or built upon in any way.The use of orthopedic special tests (OSTs) to diagnose shoulder pathology via the clinical examination is standard in clinical practice. There is a great deal of research on special tests but much of the research is of a lower quality implying that the metrics from that research, sensitivity, specificity, and likelihood ratios, is likely to vary greatly in the hands of different clinicians and in varying practice environments. A way to improve the clinical diagnostic process is to cluster OSTs and to use these clusters to either rule in or out different pathologies. The aim of the article is to review the best OST clusters, examine the methodology by which they were derived, and illustrate, with a case study, the use of these OST clusters to arrive at a pathology-based diagnosis.Peer reviewedProo

Pain and physical functioning in neuropathic pain: a systematic review of psychometric properties of various outcome measures

INTRODUCTION: A range of outcome measures across various domains are used to evaluate change following an intervention in clinical trials on chronic neuropathic pain (NeP). However, to capture a real change in the variable of interest, the psychometric properties of a particular measure should demonstrate appropriate methodological quality. Various outcome measures in the domains of pain and physical functioning have been used in the literature for NeP, for which individual properties (eg, reliability/validity) have been reported. To date, there is no definitive synthesis of evidence on the psychometric properties of those outcome measures; thus, the aim of this systematic review was to evaluate the methodological quality [COnsensus-based Standards for the selection of health status Measurement INstruments (COSMIN) guidelines] of studies that evaluated psychometric properties of pain and physical functioning outcome measures used for NeP. METHODS: Specific MeSH/keywords related to 3 areas (pain and/or physical functioning, psychometric properties, and NeP) were used to retrieve relevant studies (English language) in key electronic databases (MEDLINE (Ovid), CINAHL (EBSCO), Scopus, AMED, and Web of Science) from database inception-July 2012. Articles retrieval/screening and quality analysis (COSMIN) were carried out by 2 independent reviewers. RESULTS: Twenty-four pain and thirty-seven physical functioning outcome measures were identified, varying in methodological quality from poor-excellent. CONCLUSION: Although a variety of pain and physical functioning outcome measures have been reported in the literature, few have demonstrate methodologically strong psychometric properties. Thus, future research is required to further investigate the psychometric properties of existing pain and physical functioning outcome measures used for clinical and research purposes

Joint hierarchical models for sparsely sampled high-dimensional LiDAR and forest variables

Recent advancements in remote sensing technology, specifically Light Detection and Ranging (LiDAR) sensors, provide the data needed to quantify forest characteristics at a fine spatial resolution over large geographic domains. From an inferential standpoint, there is interest in prediction and interpolation of the often sparsely sampled and spatially misaligned LiDAR signals and forest variables. We propose a fully process-based Bayesian hierarchical model for above ground biomass (AGB) and LiDAR signals. The processbased framework offers richness in inferential capabilities, e.g., inference on the entire underlying processes instead of estimates only at pre-specified points. Key challenges we obviate include misalignment between the AGB observations and LiDAR signals and the high-dimensionality in the model emerging from LiDAR signals in conjunction with the large number of spatial locations. We offer simulation experiments to evaluate our proposed models and also apply them to a challenging dataset comprising LiDAR and spatially coinciding forest inventory variables collected on the Penobscot Experimental Forest (PEF), Maine. Our key substantive contributions include AGB data products with associated measures of uncertainty for the PEF and, more broadly, a methodology that should find use in a variety of current and upcoming forest variable mapping efforts using sparsely sampled remotely sensed high-dimensional data

A Retrospective Analysis of Prevalence of Gastrointestinal Parasites among School Children in the Palajunoj Valley of Guatemala

This study retrospectively analyzed demographic factors that may affect the prevalence of intestinal parasites among Guatemalan school children. The findings of the study showed that young age, wet season, female gender, and severe malnutrition all correlated positively with increased rates of infection. Clinical visits were performed on 10,586 school children aged 5-15 years over a four-year period (2004-2007) in the Palajunoj Valley of Guatemala, during which 5,705 viable stool samples were screened for infection with the following parasites: Ascaris lumbricoides, Giardia lamblia, Entamoeba histolytica, Hymenolepis nana, and Blastocystis hominis. The average overall prevalences of infection for specific parasites were A. lumbricoides 17.7%, E. histolytica 16.1%, G. lamblia 10.9%, H. nana 5.4%, and B. hominis 2.8%. Statistical analysis showed significantly higher rates of infection among younger children with G. lamblia (odds ratio [OR]=0.905, 95% confidence interval [CI] 0.871-0.941, p<0.0001) and E. histolytica (p=0.0006), greater prevalence of H. nana among females (OR=1.275, CI 1.010-1.609, p=0.0412), higher infection rates during the wet season for E. histolytica (p=0.0003) and H. nana (OR=0.734, CI 0.557-0.966, p=0.0275), and greater rates of infection with G. lamblia among malnourished children (for moderately malnourished children OR=1.498, CI 1.143-1.963, p<0.0001) and E. histolytica (for mildly malnourished children OR=1.243, CI 1.062-1.455, p=0.0313). The results suggest that the prevalence of gastrointestinal parasites among young Guatemalan children is highly dependent on the specific species of the parasite