Digital Commons Network^™

Female Inmates: Coping With Imprisonment And Separation From Family And Friends, Katarzyna Celinska, Irina Fanarraga, Michael Cronin

Publications and Research

In this study coping with imprisonment among female inmates, and how it relates to experiencing separation from family and friends, is being explored. Data was collected via a survey of 194 female inmates in a Northeastern state correctional facility for women. The self-reported data included the Brief COPE assessment, as well as demographic and “contact” variables: visits, phone calls, and letter writing. The findings indicate that female prisoners tend to utilize adaptive coping methods to deal with their imprisonment. Specifically, letter writing was found to be positively associated with adaptive coping. However, visits from family members and from children were …

Review Of Bence Nemeth, How To Achieve Defence Cooperation In Europe? The Subregional Approach. Bristol: Bristol University Press, 2022iv+192pp., L Cladi

School of Law, Humanities and Social Sciences

Book review

The Intersection Between Toxicology And Aging Research: A Toxic Aging Coin Perspective., John P. Wise Jr.

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

We are imminently faced with the challenges of an increasingly aging population and longer lifespans due to improved health care. Concomitantly, we are faced with ubiquitous environmental pollution linked with various health effects and age-related diseases which contribute to increased morbidity with age. Geriatric populations are rarely considered in the development of environmental regulations or in toxicology research. Today, life expectancy is often into one’s 80s or beyond, which means multiple decades living as a geriatric individual. Hence, adverse health effects and late-onset diseases might be due to environmental exposures as a geriatric, and we currently have no way of …

A Novel Approach To Assessment Of Us Pediatric Trauma System Development., Mary E. Fallat, Colin Traeger, Sophie Humphrey, Lindsey Gumer, Kahir Jawad, Elissa Butler, Frederick B. Rogers, Frederick P. Rivara, Amelia T. Collings

Faculty and Staff Scholarship

Importance Mature trauma systems are critical in building and maintaining national, state, and local resilience against all-hazard disasters. Currently, pediatric state trauma system plans are not standardized and thus are without concrete measures of potential effectiveness.

Objective To develop objective measures of pediatric trauma system capability at the state level, hypothesizing significant variation in capabilities between states, and to provide a contemporary report on the status of national pediatric trauma system planning and development.

Design, Setting, and Participants A national survey was deployed in 2018 to perform a gap analysis of state pediatric trauma system capabilities. Four officials from each …

Covid-19 Asymptomatic Testing Program For Alabama K-12 Schools Extended For 2022-2023 School Year, New Services Added, Hannah Echols

Browse All News

No abstract provided.

Weather Information And Decision-Support Tool Needs Assessment, Lily Calderwood, Glen Koehler, Sean Birkel, Erin H. Roche

Journal of Extension

University of Maine researchers developed three commodity-specific grower focus groups (lowbush blueberry, apple, mixed vegetable) to discuss and survey 1) current access to weather information, and 2) interest in weather-based decision support tools. NOAA National Weather Service (30%) (n=47) was most commonly cited as a weather information source. Growers ranked greater forecast accuracy (31%) and localization (19%) (n=48) as highest priorities. Only 34% of growers reported current use of weather-based decision support tools, but 86% expressed interest in future use (n=134). The project team is using grower input to improve weather data access and decision-support tools for Maine farmers.

Contributing Or Clocking In: A Study Of Work Engagement, Stacey Ellison, Amy Harder

Journal of Extension

While organizations benefit from lower operating costs resulting from higher quality and quantity of work when employees are engaged in their work, (Risher, 2018). This study used the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale (Schuafeli & Bakker, 2004) to uncover the work engagement levels of county extension agents at one University. Findings suggest Extension agents report Florida Extension agents reported possessing high levels of self-perceived work engagement. These findings were consistent with other previous research (Abbott, 2017; Weyrauch, 2010) which likewise found Extension agents often or very often report dedication.

Engaging Farmers, Culinary Schools, And Communities In Value-Added Production To Strengthen Local Food Systems, Lauren B. Errickson, Ethan D. Schoolman, Virginia Quick, Sarah Davis, Anthony Capece

Journal of Extension

Value-added products can generate farm income and improve community food access, yet lack of available kitchen infrastructure and labor can limit farm production capacity. This project explored how community-based culinary schools might fill the gap. A unique “product share” model was identified and piloted, meeting the collective needs of farmers, a culinary school, and urban consumers. By researching farmer crop availability and business model preferences, and aligning value-added production with community food preferences, we demonstrate a successful pilot indicative that similar initiatives can be replicated in other metropolitan areas, with potential to engage cross-disciplinary extension professionals.

The Go Wild With Whole Grains! School-Based Program: Positive Impacts Among Children, Joshua Bailey, Sara Van Offelen, Hyunjun Kim, Marla Reicks

Journal of Extension

Whole grain foods have been associated with health benefits, yet are underconsumed by youth compared to recommendations. This study evaluated impacts of a school-based curriculum among children in grades 3-5 to address barriers to intake (2018-2019) (n = 1,748). Surveys before and after the program indicated youth were more willing to try and better able to identify whole grain foods. Open-ended responses confirmed findings regarding increased ability to identify whole grain foods, increased preferences and perceptions of availability. Together, these impacts could increase the likelihood that youth can meet whole grain intake recommendations to improve diet quality and health.

Oneoppf: A Personal Finance Professional Development Resource, Barbara M. O'Neill, Martie Gillen, Selena Garrison, Molly C. Herndon

Journal of Extension

This article describes personal finance programming available through the OneOp Personal Finance team (OneOpPF) for the professional development of Extension educators and military Personal Financial Managers for outreach to their clientele. Included is a brief description of six OneOpPF deliverables (webinars, blog posts, Question of the Day tweets, podcasts, social media, and newsletters) and a discussion of impact indicators such as online outreach statistics and continuing education units awarded to program participants. The article concludes with four best practices for working with military stakeholders and a description of how OneOpPF program materials can be accessed by Extension professionals.

Tiktok, Tomatoes, And Teenagers: Using New Social Media Apps To Connect Extension Education With Younger Audiences, Coleman K. Simpson, Joseph L. Donaldson

Journal of Extension

Social media usage has precipitated changes in Cooperative Extension’s delivery of programs to amplify involvement with selected audiences and it is important that we craft relevant content for a variety of audiences. Current research tells us that social media and related content can enrich education and can create broader audiences for programming. Resources like blogs, podcasts, and geofilters have shown to be received positively by a wide range of audiences and have created greater rates of engagement.

Yet, one platform that has received limited attention is TikTok, perhaps due to TikTok’s mixed reviews in educational systems. With current trends showing …

Minnesota Cottage Food Industry: Insights From Extension Food Safety Education, Morrine Omolo, Regina Mcgoff, Suzanne Driessen, Katherine Brandt, Joanne Slavin, Michael Schmitt

Journal of Extension

The cottage food industry has become a significant part of the food supply in Minnesota, most likely as a result of the growing consumer demand for locally produced, minimally processed and value-added foods. Using post-training evaluations, we characterized the cottage food producers in Minnesota and assessed the impact of our food safety course. The results showed that the producers are mostly white women (71%), producing and selling a variety of products. The learners gained knowledge to safely produce and handle homemade food products for direct sale to consumers. Majority (80%) of the learners were satisfied with the course.

Evaluating Utah's Rural Online Initiative: Empowering Organizational Leaders Through Remote Work, Paul A. Hill, Amanda D. Ali, Lendel K. Narine, Andrea T. Schmutz, Tyson M. Riskas, Debra M. Spielmaker

Journal of Extension

Compared to urban counties, Utah's rural counties experienced high levels of unemployment. Informed by a statewide needs assessment, Utah State University Extension developed a remote work leadership course to equip business leaders with knowledge and skills to create remote jobs as a solution to rural unemployment. This descriptive evaluation study collected data from course participants (N = 62). Findings showed short-term outcomes were achieved; participants experienced increases in knowledge and skills and had more positive intentions toward creating remote jobs and hiring employees from rural counties. Extension professionals can design and evaluate their programs using the framework in this study.

Protecting Cattle Feedyard Workers In The Central States Region: Exploring State, Regional, And National Data On Fatal And Nonfatal Injuries In Agriculture And The Beef Production Sector, Athena K. Ramos, Suraj Adhikari, Risto Rautiainen, Aaron Yoder

Journal of Extension

Working in agriculture can be dangerous. Despite ongoing efforts of Extension, animal production worker safety has not been adequately addressed. We present state, regional, and national counts and rates on fatal and nonfatal injuries in agriculture and animal production using publicly available data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics. We found that animal production had a high number of fatal injuries and a higher rate of nonfatal injuries than the average within agriculture. More needs to be done to protect livestock workers from injury. Extension professionals can play a key role in increasing safety knowledge and changing behaviors.

Participatory Evaluation And Needs Assessment Tools For Cooperative Extension In A Virtual Environment, Karen A. Vines

Journal of Extension

The Cooperative Extension organization could be categorized as a participatory organization because of our focus on local needs in driving our work. The pandemic moved a lot of our work to online platforms. This article reflects on use of online tools for program evaluation and needs assessment. Online focus groups were successful in gathering high quality data from a diverse and geographically dispersed population for program evaluation and as part of a needs assessment process. Coupling the focus groups with a modified World Café approach allowed us to go beyond identification of needs to prioritization and development of potential solutions.

Teaching Educators Basic Fruit Tree Grafting Methods, Jeffrey C. Wilson, Wayne Porter, Casey Barickman

Journal of Extension

Hands-on education has proven to be successful in teaching basic grafting methods. MSU Extension developed and conducted eleven statewide workshops teaching Extension Agents and Master Gardeners preferred fruit tree grafting methods. The hands-on workshops provided specialists, agents, and Master Gardeners training on teaching fruit tree grafting classes for clientele. Each workshop consisted of a pre-test, a PowerPoint presentation, a post-test, and a grafting demonstration. Post-test scores showed a significant gain in knowledge over pre-test scores. This training can be replicated/adapted by other organizations to conduct educational outreach.

Insular Cortical Circuits As An Executive Gateway To Decipher Threat Or Extinction Memory Via Distinct Subcortical Pathways, Qi Wang, Jia-Jie Zhu, Lizhao Wang, Yan-Peng Kan, Yan-Mei Liu, Xue Gu, Ze-Jie Lin, Qin Wang, Jian-Fei Lu, Qin Jiang, Ying Li, Ming-Gang Liu, Nan-Jie Xu, Michael X Zhu, Lu-Yang Wang, Siyu Zhang, Wei-Guang Li, Tian-Le Xu

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Threat and extinction memories are crucial for organisms' survival in changing environments. These memories are believed to be encoded by separate ensembles of neurons in the brain, but their whereabouts remain elusive. Using an auditory fear-conditioning and extinction paradigm in male mice, here we discovered that two distinct projection neuron subpopulations in physical proximity within the insular cortex (IC), targeting the central amygdala (CeA) and nucleus accumbens (NAc), respectively, to encode fear and extinction memories. Reciprocal intracortical inhibition of these two IC subpopulations gates the emergence of either fear or extinction memory. Using rabies-virus-assisted tracing, we found IC-NAc projection neurons …

The Age-Dependent Immune Response To Ischemic Stroke, Lisa L Kahle, Elizabeth M Venditti, Jill Reedy, Brandy M Heckman-Stoddard

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

BACKGROUND: The 2018 World Cancer Research Fund/American Institute for Cancer Research (WCRF/AICR) 3rd expert report highlights up-to-date Cancer Prevention Recommendations that may reduce burdens of many chronic diseases, including diabetes. This study examined if following a lifestyle that aligns with the recommendations - assessed via the 2018 WCRF/AICR Score - was associated with lower risk of type 2 diabetes in high-risk adults participating in the Diabetes Prevention Program Outcomes Study (DPPOS).

METHODS: The Diabetes Prevention Program (DPP) randomized adults at high risk for diabetes to receive a lifestyle intervention (ILS), metformin (MET) or a placebo (PLB) (mean: 3.2 years), with …

Gastrointestinal Microbiome Disruption And Antibiotic-Associated Diarrhea In Children Receiving Antibiotic Therapy For Community-Acquired Pneumonia, Jiye Kwon, Yong Kong, Martina Wade, Derek J Williams, Clarence Buddy Creech, Emmanuel B Walter, Jeffrey S Gerber, Jason G Newland, Meghan E Hofto, Mary Allen Staat, Henry F Chambers, Vance G Fowler, W Charles Huskins, Melinda M Pettigrew

Faculty, Staff and Student Publications

Antibiotic-associated diarrhea (AAD) is a common side effect of antibiotics. We examined the gastrointestinal microbiota in children treated with β-lactams for community-acquired pneumonia. Data were from 66 children (n = 198 samples), aged 6-71 months, enrolled in the SCOUT-CAP trial (NCT02891915). AAD was defined as ≥1 day of diarrhea. Stool samples were collected on study days 1, 6-10, and 19-25. Samples were analyzed using 16S ribosomal RNA gene sequencing to identify associations between patient characteristics, microbiota characteristics, and AAD (yes/no). Nineteen (29%) children developed AAD. Microbiota compositional profiles differed between AAD groups (permutational multivariate analysis of variance, P < .03) and across visits (P < .001). Children with higher baseline relative abundances of 2 Bacteroides species were less likely to experience AAD. Higher baseline abundance of Lachnospiraceae and amino acid biosynthesis pathways were associated with AAD. Children in the AAD group experienced prolonged dysbiosis (P < .05). Specific gastrointestinal microbiota profiles are associated with AAD in children.

Considering The Genetic Architecture Of Hypoplastic Left Heart Syndrome, John W Belmont

Center for Medical Ethics and Health Policy Staff Publications

Hypoplastic left heart syndrome (HLHS) is among the most severe cardiovascular malformations and understanding its causes is crucial to making progress in prevention and treatment. Genetic analysis is a broadly useful tool for dissecting complex causal mechanisms and it is playing a significant role in HLHS research. However, unlike classical Mendelian disorders where a relatively small number of genes are largely determinative of the occurrence and severity of the disease, the picture in HLHS is complex. De novo single-gene and copy number variant (CNV) disorders make an important contribution, but there is emerging evidence for causal contributions from lower penetrance …

Busy Boards, Entrenched Directors And Corporate Innovation, Brian Bolton, Jing Zhao

Business Faculty Publications and Presentations

We provide a comprehensive study of how different corporate governance mechanisms influence corporate innovation. Using panel data regression analysis across a sample of more than 13,600 firm-years for firms based in the United States between 1996–2010, we find that entrenched boards, though commonly associated with lower firm value, actually generate substantial innovation. We find that busy boards hinder innovation unless they also have interlocking relationships. Conversely, interlocked directors enhance innovation, unless they are busy. Directors who are CEOs or Board Chairs at other companies hinder innovation. Interestingly, despite being significant determinants of firm value in other studies, director experience, independence …

Search For Gravitational Waves From Scorpius X-1 With A Hidden Markov Model In O3 Ligo Data, R. Abbott, H. Abe, F. Acernese, K. Ackley, N. Adhikari, Michael G. Benjamin, Teviet Creighton, Mario C. Diaz, Francisco Llamas, Soma Mukherjee, Gaukhar Nurbek, Volker Quetschke, Wenhui Wang

Physics & Astronomy Faculty Publications

Results are presented for a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to allow for spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory data by including the orbital period in the search template grid, and by analyzing data from the latest (third) observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 500 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1 using a HMM to date. For the most sensitive subband, starting at …

Leadership Experiences Of Internal Medicine Residents: A Needs Assessment For Leadership Curricula, Maureen D Lyons, Julie Oyler, Katherine Iossi, Sarah Merriam

2020-Current year OA Pubs

PURPOSE: Leadership development during medical training is critical. Accrediting bodies strongly recommend and residents desire leadership training. However, limited needs assessment data exist regarding trainee perceptions of and experiences with leadership training. Our objective is to describe residents' perceptions of leadership and desires for leadership training with the goal of informing effective curricular development.

PATIENTS AND METHODS: In 2019 a trained qualitative interviewer conducted semi-structured interviews with volunteer second-year categorical internal medicine residents recruited via email across four institutions. Interviews were audio-recorded, transcribed, and inductively coded by two independent coders. After adjudicating discrepancies, coders synthesized codes into broader themes. Final …

High Prevalence Of Chronic Viral Hepatitis B And C In Minnesota Somalis Contributes To Rising Hepatocellular Carcinoma Incidence, Essa A Mohamed, Joyce E Balls-Berry, Et Al.

2020-Current year OA Pubs

BACKGROUND: Chronic hepatitis B virus (HBV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infections are known risk factors for liver disease, cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). There is substantial global variation in HBV and HCV prevalence resulting in variations in cirrhosis and HCC. We previously reported high prevalence of HBV and HCV infections in Somali immigrants seen at an academic medical center in Minnesota.

AIM: To determine the prevalence of chronic viral hepatitis in Somali immigrants in Minnesota through a community-based screening program.

METHODS: We conducted a prospective community-based participatory research study in the Somali community in Minnesota in partnership with community …

Winonan, Winona State University

The Winonan - 2020s

This issue of the Winonan student newspaper was published September 21, 2022.

Application Or Tab Switching Via Mouse Hover And Scroll, Ajinkya S. Barve

Defensive Publications Series

Many computer users use several applications simultaneously for various tasks. Switching between applications or browser tabs is cumbersome and requires the user to lift their fingers off the keyboard, move the cursor to the target application via a pointing device, and click the pointing device. This disclosure describes techniques that enable a user to rapidly switch between applications or browser tabs using the scroll of a mouse or a trackpad. The user can simply hover the mouse pointer over the system taskbar or browser tab-bar and scroll the mouse or trackpad to switch between apps or tabs.

3.423 Purchasing, Request For Proposal And Ethical Sourcing

3.400 Finance (Business Management)

No abstract provided.

Visual Group In Online Communication And Collaboration Facility Meeting Or Webinar, Alex Wang, Drong Li, Bryan Li

Defensive Publications Series

In a normal work mode, most of a company’s employees will be in an office. If those individuals would like to join a big event (such as an all-hands meeting) as a team or as a group, they are able to gather together in a telepresence (TP) room. Today, as a result of the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), many people have chosen a hybrid work mode. Under such a mode, it is not easy for all of a team’s members to gather together in the same TP room since, for example, some of the team members may work from home …

Abstract Natural Scenario Language Version 1.0, Florian Bock, Jens Lorenz

Defensive Publications Series

The development of modern driving assistant systems (assisted as well as automated) requires extensive testing and exact specification to ensure the quality of the developed systems. Therefore, scenarios are used throughout the whole process to act as accompanying artifact to assist within the design, implementation and testing procedures. Depending on the respective use case, different levels of abstraction, used natural languages and degrees of completeness are used for the scenarios. Due to the lack of an appropriate method for the specification of abstract scenarios that satisfies those needs for efficient usage, the language stiEF (acronym for “scenario-accompanied, text-based, iterative Evaluation …

Administrative Appeal Decision - Dansa, Timothy (2021-08-27)

Parole Administrative Appeal Decisions

No abstract provided.