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Utricularia purpurea (Purple Bladderwort) has had sporadic population explosions in some northern Wisconsin lakes within the last 20 years. It can form dense floating, nonflowering masses that impede recreational activities on the affected lakes. Three lakes in which this weediness was noted are soft water, low-nutrient, seepage lakes that experience widely fluctuating water levels and recent nutrient runoff. Excessive weediness has not been described in nearby Minnesota nor Michigan, although the plant is sporadically locally abundant. U. purpurea is listed as "Endangered" in Minnesota. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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As one of the most common types of cancer among women, breast cancer is a serious health concern worldwide. Early detection is crucial for successful treatment and improved survival rates. However, detecting breast cancer is challenging due to imbalanced classification, where the minority class (cancerous) is ominously smaller than the majority class (non-cancerous). In this paper, we explore the use of logistic regression (LR) and the adaptive synthetic resampling (ADASYN) technique to address imbalanced classification in breast cancer detection. To that end, we collected the Wisconsin Breast Cancer dataset, which contains 569 instances. The dataset is imbalanced, with 212 malignant (cancerous) cases and 357 benign (non-cancerous) cases. Then, we trained support vector machine, LR, K-nearest neighbor, gradient, and adaptive boosting on the imbalanced dataset. Finally, we trained these algorithms on resampled data with the ADASYN oversampling and we evaluated their performance using cross-validation score with 5-folds. The results of the experiment showed that using ADASYN with LR significantly improved the performance the LR model. The LR model achieves 99.46% accuracy on breast cancer diagnosis. Moreover, the confusion matrix shows that among the 188 samples, the model misclassified one cancerous instance. Thus, we concluded that the proposed model is effective for breast cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) often experience extended periods of immobility. Following hospital discharge, many face impaired mobility and never return to their baseline function. Although the benefits of physical and occupational rehabilitation are well established in non‐ICU patients, a paucity of work describes effective practices to alleviate ICU‐related declines in mobility. Objective: To assess how rehabilitation with physical and occupational therapy (PT‐OT) during ICU stays affects patients' mobility, self‐care, and length of hospital stay. Design: Retrospective cohort study. Setting: Inpatient ICU. Participants: A total of 6628 adult patients who received physical rehabilitation across multiple sites (Arizona, Florida, Minnesota, and Wisconsin) of a single institution between January 2018 and December 2021. Interventions: Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures: Descriptive statistics, linear regression models, and gradient boosting machine methods were used to determine the relationship between the amount of PT‐OT received and outcomes of hospital length of stay (LOS), Activity Measure for Post‐Acute Care Daily Activity and Basic Mobility scores. Results: The 6628 patients who met inclusion criteria received an average (median) of 23 (range: 1‐89) minutes of PT‐OT per day. Regression analyses showed each additional 10 minutes of PT‐OT per day was associated with a 1.0% (95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.41–1.66, p <.001) higher final Basic Mobility score, a 1.8% (95% CI: 1.30%–2.34%, p <.001) higher final Daily Activity score, and a 1.2‐day (95% CI: −1.28 to −1.09, p <.001) lower hospital LOS. One‐dimensional partial dependence plots revealed an exponential decrease in predicted LOS as minutes of PT‐OT received increased. Conclusion: Higher rehabilitation minutes provided to patients in the ICU may reduce the LOS and improve patients' functional outcomes at discharge. The benefits of rehabilitation increased with increasing amounts of time of therapy received. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer remains a pervasive global health concern, necessitating continuous efforts to attain effectiveness of recurrence prediction schemes. This work focuses on breast cancer recurrence prediction using two advanced architectures such as Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU), integrated with feature selection techniques utilizing Logistic Regression (LR) and Analysis of Variance (ANOVA). The well-known Wisconsin cancer registry dataset, which contains vital diagnostic data from breast mass fine-needle aspiration biopsies, was employed in this study. The mean values of accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score for the proposed LR-CNN-LSTM model were calculated as 98.24%, 99.14%, 98.30% and 98.14% respectively. The mean values of accuracy, precision, recall and F1-score for the proposed ANOVA-GRU model were calculated as 96.49%, 97.04%, 96.67% and 96.67% respectively. The comparison with traditional methods showcases the superiority of our proposed approach. Moreover, the insights gained from feature selection contribute to a deeper understanding of the critical factors influencing breast cancer recurrence. The combination of LSTM and GRU models with feature selection methods not only enhances prediction accuracy but also provides valuable insights for medical practitioners. This research holds the potential to aid in early diagnosis and personalized treatment strategies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Fish population surveys in north‐temperate lakes are often conducted in the fall or spring when individuals are easy to capture with traditional fisheries techniques. Because some fishes are preparing to spawn or are spawning during these seasons, there is a critical need to better understand the potential influences of these surveys on decisions that are related to fish reproduction. Methods: We tested whether spring mark–recapture surveys using fyke nets followed by electrofishing affect the reproductive behaviors of male Smallmouth Bass Micropterus dolomieu in a northern Wisconsin lake. Fyke netting, electrofishing, and whole‐lake nest snorkeling surveys were conducted during 2001–2008, and Floy‐tagged males were tracked across years to test whether capture in the fyke nets only or capture in the electrofishing survey influenced interyear nest site fidelity and reproductive timing. Result: The mark–recapture surveys were conducted preceding the spawning of Smallmouth Bass, and returning males that were caught in the electrofishing survey nested ~50 m farther from their prior year's nest than both males that were captured only in fyke nets and males that were captured by neither method. Average interyear nest distances were ~200 m, and median interyear nest distances were ~90 m for males that were not captured in the electrofishing survey. Electrofishing and fyke netting did not influence the timing of reproduction. Conclusion: Spring electrofishing surveys for Smallmouth Bass have the potential to displace breeding males from preferred nesting habitats. If displacement negatively influences fitness (i.e., age‐0 survivorship to maturation), spring electrofishing surveys would not be recommended for assessing Smallmouth Bass populations. However, spring population surveys often occur soon after ice off, and surveys that are conducted at these colder temperatures are typically less stressful and less likely to result in mortality. Future research should test for fitness implications of reduced nest site fidelity following electrofishing in Smallmouth Bass while considering potential fitness trade‐offs if surveys are moved later in the year. Impact statementFish populations are often surveyed in the spring because many species move to the shoreline to spawn at this time. Being near the shoreline makes fish easier to catch, but we do not understand well how electrofishing surveys impact reproduction. This study helps address this gap to allow better management of Smallmouth Bass populations. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We, four teachers in Ojibwe or majority-Ojibwe schools and three teachers in teacher preparation at a small ecologically focused liberal arts college, tell stories to reorient ourselves, centering place in ways accessible to our emerging practice. In these narratives, anchored in the seasons, we describe our challenges and successes in adapting education programs to better evoke the lifeways that predominate in our shared part of rural northern Wisconsin immersed in the lands of the Ojibwe. We relied on experiences, both ours and of Ojibwe learners, to illuminate the rhythms of our place and the seasons of learning defined by boreal forest, an inland sea, the sugar bush, and the wild rice harvest, in the hope of better outcomes for Indigenous and non-Indigenous teacher candidates (and their future students) in our evolving program. This narrative work cobbles a frame enabling connection to create rural, fugitive, decolonized teacher preparation that centers respect, reciprocity, and agency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the second leading cause of disease death in women, after lung and bronchus cancer. According to measurements, mammography misses breast cancer in 10% to 15% of cases for women aged 50 to 69 years. In the current study, we used the Wisconsin breast cancer dataset to develop a two-stage model for breast cancer diagnosis. The main goal of this study effort is to effectively carry out feature selection and classification tasks. Gradient Boosting Decision Tree-based Mayfly Optimisation (GBDTMO), an innovative and efficient breast cancer diagnostic machine learning system, is provided. In the second stage, we employ a Mayfly search to determine which subset of traits is the best. Two more well-known datasets on breast cancer, the ICCR and the Cancer Corpus, were also compared for classification accuracy. The accuracy of the suggested GBDTMO model was higher than that of the existing GBDT and Practical Federated Gradient Boosting Decision Tree (PFGBDT), which had accuracy values of 93.25% and 94.25%, respectively. Similarly, the recall, F-measure, and ROC area values were 98.52%, 97.52%, and 96.32%, respectively. Furthermore, it demonstrated a lower RMSE of 0.98 than the existing GBDT and PFGBDT. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There have been significant changes to Wisconsin agriculture since ~2010, one of which is the growth of commercial farming of white-tailed deer (WTD; Odocoileus virginianus). These high-density populations may lead to the emergence of previously unrecognized or under-recognized disease trends. I evaluated archived pathology records at the Wisconsin Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory (WVDL) from 2009–2021 for captive WTD postmortem cases and included records from 277 WTD cases. Diagnoses were found in 81.9% of cases, with an average of 1.3 diagnoses per animal. Submissions with a clinical history of respiratory disease were 7.0 times more likely to have a diagnosis than the average case. Fawns were 1.9 times more likely to have a diagnosis. The most common diagnoses were bronchopneumonia and enteritis and/or enterocolitis (both 16.2% of total diagnoses). The most common isolates from bronchopneumonia cases were Pasteurella multocida, Bibersteinia trehalosi, and Trueperella pyogenes. The pathogens identified most often in enteritis and/or enterocolitis cases were rotavirus, Clostridium perfringens, and Escherichia coli. The most common non-infectious diagnoses were poor nutritional status or inanition, hepatic lipidosis, and selenium and/or vitamin E deficiency. Focusing on testing for pathogens in fawns and in cervid respiratory disease complex submissions may be recommended for laboratories expanding their WTD testing. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Lakeshore riparian habitats have undergone intensive residential development in many parts of the world. Lakeshore residential development (LRD) is associated with aquatic habitat loss/alteration, including altered macrophyte communities and reduced coarse woody habitat. Yet habitat‐mediated and other generalized effects of LRD on lake biotic communities are not well understood. We used two approaches to examine the relationships among LRD, habitat, and fish community in a set of 57 northern Wisconsin lakes. First, we examined how LRD affected aquatic habitat using mixed linear effects models. Second, we evaluated how LRD affected fish abundance and community structure at both whole‐lake and site‐level spatial scales using generalized linear mixed‐effects models. We found that LRD did not have a significant relationship with the total abundance (all species combined) of fish at either scale. However, there were significant species‐specific responses to LRD at the whole‐lake scale. Species abundances varied across the LRD gradient, with bluegill (Lepomis macrochirus) and mimic shiners (Notropis volucellus) responding positively along the gradient and walleye (Sander vitreus) having the most negative response. We also quantified site‐level habitat associations for each fish species. We found that habitat associations did not inform a species' overall response to LRD, as illustrated by species with similar responses to LRD having vastly different habitat associations. Finally, even with the inclusion of littoral habitat information in models, LRD still had significant effects on species abundances, reflecting a role of LRD in shaping littoral fish communities independent of our measure of littoral habitat alteration. Our results indicated that LRD altered littoral fish communities at the whole‐lake scale through both habitat and non‐habitat‐mediated drivers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A central focus of invasive species research has been on human efforts to eradicate invaders or reduce their abundance to mitigate the worst of their impacts. In some cases, however, populations of invasive species decline without human intervention, which may inform management responses to these invaders. Such is the case of the invasive rusty crayfish (Faxonius rusticus) in northern Wisconsin, USA, where systematic population monitoring since 1975 has revealed population declines in approximately half of the lakes surveyed. Population declines of invasive species without human intervention remain understudied, but there is even less research on how communities respond following such declines. Using 10 lakes in Vilas County, Wisconsin, we investigated community recovery of habitat (macrophytes) and prey (freshwater snails) of F. rusticus following up to 33 years of declines of this invader in some lakes using a dataset with a rare, long‐term span over which consistent data were collected (1987, 2002, 2011, and 2020). We compared community responses in lakes where F. rusticus populations reached a peak and subsequently declined (boom‐bust lakes) and lakes where our dataset only captured the decline of F. rusticus (bust lakes) to reference lakes with consistently high or low crayfish abundance over time. We found partial recovery of macrophytes and snails in the bust and boom‐bust lakes where F. rusticus has declined, with recovery of macrophyte abundance and richness in the boom‐bust lakes achieving levels observed in the low‐crayfish reference lakes. Snail abundance and richness increased after declines of F. rusticus, though not to the level of the low‐crayfish reference lakes, suggesting that snail recovery may lag macrophyte recovery because snails are dependent on macrophytes and associated periphyton for habitat. The recovery we document potentially represents long‐term ecosystem resilience of lakes to biological invasions. Our results suggest that lake communities may recover without active restoration interventions after invasive crayfish population declines, although identifying which lakes experience these natural declines remains a priority for future research and management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Discard mortality is an important factor to consider when managing catch‐and‐release fisheries. Even low levels of discard mortality can induce population‐level effects particularly in long‐lived, low‐productivity species like Lake Sturgeon Acipenser fulvescens. Unfortunately, little is known about the effects of catch‐and‐release angling on Lake Sturgeon physiology and probability of discard mortality. We used controlled angling events with standardized gear to capture 96 Lake Sturgeon from August to October 2019 from four regional locations in Wisconsin, USA. We evaluated the physiological effects of angling and activation of the stress response using whole blood concentrations of lactate and glucose as well as assessment of reflex impairment and postcapture monitoring of recovery time. Lactate levels were positively related to fight duration and the fight duration × total length interaction. Glucose level was related to the time a fish spent out of water postangling event. Water temperature had a positive effect on the probability of reflex impairment and the probability that a sturgeon required recovery time. The recovery duration was positively related to the amount of time that the fish was out of water. The movements of a subset of 15 individuals from one location were monitored using acoustic telemetry for approximately 2 weeks postangling. All individuals showed continuous up‐ and downstream movement during the postrelease monitoring period, and there was no evidence of mortality related to the angling events. Managers considering catch‐and‐release fisheries for Lake Sturgeon should consider population‐specific relative abundance and catch rates. They should exercise caution in scenarios when seasonal aggregations may lead populations to be susceptible to high catch rates, during times of elevated water temperatures, or the combination of these factors. The Lake Sturgeon in this study appeared to be robust to angling‐induced stress effects. Nevertheless, caution is still warranted, as low levels of discard mortality have the potential to influence low‐productivity species like Lake Sturgeon. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In response to declines in coarse woody habitat (CWH) and fish productivity in natural lakes and reservoirs, agencies and stakeholders have used woody and artificial habitat enhancements to slow or reverse the effects of habitat loss from aging or shoreline development. Given that natural lakes and reservoirs differ in physical and biological conditions that could influence habitat enhancement outcomes, a framework is needed to guide management expectations for CWH replacement under different ecosystem contexts. We review ecosystem contexts that influence the effects of structural habitat enhancements in natural lakes and reservoirs, use preliminary results from case studies in a natural lake in Wisconsin and two reservoirs in Illinois to illustrate the importance of these contexts, and provide management recommendations for habitat deployments that consider physical and biological ecosystem characteristics. Because of their influence on trophic transfer efficiency, trophic status and turbidity are important contexts for habitat enhancements in natural lakes and reservoirs. Habitat enhancements to large reservoirs must also contend with high nutrient loading, water level fluctuations, and longitudinal gradients in physical and biological conditions. Preliminary results from the Wisconsin experiment illustrated the importance of the recipient fish community, with rates of response to the structural enhancement varying among fish species. The Illinois case studies demonstrated how the magnitude of change (i.e., effect size) after habitat enhancement can differ (1) between CWH additions to an oligotrophic natural lake and a eutrophic, turbid reservoir and (2) by longitudinal position of artificial habitat within a large reservoir. The functions or ecosystem services of CWH targeted for rehabilitation provide guidance as to which ecosystem features will shape the strength, direction, and duration of response. Future whole‐ecosystem manipulations are needed across a wider range of environmental contexts and fish productivity responses, and the strength of productivity increases should be compared to increased harvest efficiency. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Four decades ago, two cultural geographers and a landscape architect described Wisconsin's Belgian ethnic landscape, the nation's largest rural concentration of persons of Belgian ancestry, noting its distinctive architecture and religious heritage. The presence of small roadside votive chapels had long been noted, yet the geographers lamented that they might disappear over time. The landscape architect noted that there were "only a dozen remaining chapels' and there were none "under construction." This paper revisits the findings of these scholars and looks at the contemporary status of these chapels. Today there are as many roadside chapels as there were in the 19805, including historic chapels, those relocated to cemeteries, plus at least five new chapels erected this century. Their continuing presence, promotion by the Belgian Heritage Center, and interest and publicity by a local religious leader ensures that they remain an enduring sacred feature on the Belgian cultural landscape of northeast Wisconsin. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is the primary cause of women's death due to cancer; if detected in the early stage, it is a curable disease. Machine learning classification techniques are helpful in breast cancer detection. The research aims to investigate the averaged-perceptron machine-learning classifier performance on the Wisconsin original breast cancer dataset (WBC); the work has focused on two points; first, does the averaged-perceptron classifier has the quality to gain a higher accuracy than the other classifiers? Second, does it help to reduce false-negative or false-positive breast cancer predictions? The averaged-perceptron model recorded an accuracy score of 0.984 with zero false-negative predictions. The investigation has also signified the effect of threshold on false-negative or false-positive prediction. Applying the averaged-perceptron classifier in a computer-aided-diagnosis system can improve breast cancer recognition accuracy with zero false-positive or false-negative forecasts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer is a disease in which the cells of the breast develop unnaturally and uncontrollably, resulting in a mass called a tumor. If lumps in the breast are not addressed, they can spread to other regions of the body, including the bones, liver, and lungs. Men and women are both affected by breast cancer, albeit men are at a lower risk. This research investigates the detection of breast cancer by applying machine learning algorithms, deep learning algorithms, and hybrid machine learning approaches to a variety of datasets. These datasets include breast cancer databases from Wisconsin as well as mammography imaging datasets. The goal of this research is to find the best model for breast cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Breast cancer was the most diagnosed form of cancer in 2020. Early diagnosis of breast cancer results in a significant improvement in long-term survival rates. Current methods require consultation with experts, which is expensive and time-consuming and thus may not be accessible to all. This paper seeks to train and evaluate supervised machine learning models for the accurate and efficient detection of breast cancer. The Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database dataset describes 30 attributes of cell nuclei, including, but not limited to, their radius, texture, and concavity. It contains 569 instances, 212 of which are malignant tumors. The Random Forest algorithm outperforms other algorithms in classifying breast tumors as either malignant or benign and is thus selected as our primary model. It is trained on two different subsets of the dataset having 16 and 8 features, respectively, identified with the help of multiple feature selection methods. The Random Forest models are tested post hyperparameter tuning on a holdout set, and accuracies of 100% and 99.30% respectively. The models are also compared with four other machine learning classification algorithms: Support Vector Machine (SVM), Decision Tree, Multilayer Perceptron, and K-Nearest Neighbors. The results confirm that Random Forest is the superior method for breast cancer diagnosis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research addressing work-related musculoskeletal disorders (WMSDs) among veterinary technicians is limited. Veterinary technicians are exposed to several activities that require lifting and the adoption of non-neutral postures associated with WMSDs. It is essential to design interventions aimed at reducing WMSDs in this population. The goal of this study was to identify typical, prevalent work tasks that pose high ergonomic risk factors to veterinary technicians, as well as to determine the WMSD risk associated with the work tasks identified in order to implement interventions. A small-animal veterinary clinic in central Wisconsin was contacted for this study. Nine veterinary technicians and assistants participated in assessing musculoskeletal symptoms and identifying tasks with ergonomic risk factors. The tasks with a high count of risk factors were evaluated using the Rapid Entire Body Assessment (REBA). All participants in this study experienced musculoskeletal discomfort in five or more body regions. They also reported being unable to perform work over the last 12 months due to WMSDs on shoulders, ankles, and feet (33%, n=3), neck and lower back (22%, n=2), and wrists, hands, hips, thighs, and knees 11% (n=1). One of the respondents reported no discomfort over the last seven days, while eight of them indicated discomfort in three or more body areas. Restraining and handling animals, sedation and recovery, and dental procedures were chosen for REBA analysis. Restraining and handling animals had a high-risk REBA score (ranging from 8 to 10). Sedation and recovery had a low to medium-risk REBA score (ranging from 3 to 5). Dental procedure recovery had a low to very high-risk REBA score (ranging from 2 to 11). Our findings suggest that most veterinary technicians come to work experiencing musculoskeletal discomfort and are exposed to significant WMSD risk levels when performing common tasks. This job assessment allows us to recommend administrative and engineering controls to reduce the risk of WMSDs associated with high-risk tasks. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Obesity is a major risk factor for adverse outcomes after COVID-19 infection. However, it is unknown if the worse outcomes are due to the confounding effect of demographic and obesity-related comorbidities. The study objective is to analyze associations between body mass index, patient characteristics, obesity-related comorbidity, and clinical outcomes in COVID-19 patients. In this prospective cohort study, we chose patient records between March 1st, 2020, and December 1st, 2022, in a large tertiary care center in southeast Wisconsin in the United States. Patients over the age of 18 who tested positive were included in the study. Clinical outcomes included hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) admission, mechanical ventilation, and mortality rates. We examined the characteristics of patients who had positive clinical outcomes. We created unadjusted logistic regression models, sequentially adjusting for demographic and comorbidity variables, to assess the independent associations between BMI, patient characteristics, obesity-related comorbidities, and clinical outcomes. From a record of 1.67 million inpatients and outpatients at Froedtert Health Center, 55,299 (BMI: 30.5 ± 7.4 kg/m2, 62.5 % female) tested COVID-19 positive during the study period. 17,580 (31.8 %) patients were admitted to hospitals, and of hospitalized patients required ICU admission. 1038 (36.3 %) required mechanical ventilation, and 462 (44.5 %) died after a positive test for COVID-19. We found female patients show a higher hospitalization rate, while male patients have a higher rate of ICU admission, mechanical ventilation, and mortality. Obesity-related comorbidities are associated with worse outcomes compared to simple obesity without comorbidities. In logistic regression models, we found four similar V-shaped associations between BMI and four clinical outcomes. Patients with a BMI of 25 kg/m2 are at the lowest risk for clinical outcomes. Patients with a BMI lower than 18 kg/m2 or higher than 30 kg/m2 are associated with a higher risk of hospitalization, ICU, mechanical ventilation, and death. After adjusting the model for demographic factors and hypertension and diabetes as two common comorbidities, we found that demographic factors do not significantly increase the risk. Obesity alone does not significantly increase the risk of severe clinical outcomes. Obesity-related comorbidities, on the other hand, resulted in a significantly higher risk of outcomes. Obesity alone does not increase the risk of worse clinical outcomes after COVID-19 infection. It may suggest that the worse clinical outcomes of patients with obesity are mediated via hypertension and type 2 diabetes. Patients with obesity and comorbidities have a higher risk of poor outcomes. Obesity-related comorbidities, including hypertension and diabetes, are independently associated with poorer clinical outcomes among COVID-19 patients. At a BMI of more than 30 kg/m2 or less than 18 kg/m2, we found an increase in the risk of severe COVID-19 outcomes leading to hospitalization, ICU, mechanical ventilation, and death. The increased risk of severe outcomes is not attributed to patient characteristics but can be attributed to hypertension and diabetes. • Simple obesity does not significantly increase severe COVID-19 outcome risks. • Primary hypertension and Type 2 diabetes are associated with worse outcomes. • Females are associated with a higher hospitalization rate. • Males are associated with an increased risk of ICU admission and death. • A BMI of 25 kg/m2 is associated with the lowest risk of COVID-19 outcomes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We report an isolated population of the native annual Douglas’ Knotweed (Polygonum douglasii Greene) from a dry, southfacing outcrop of conglomerate and sandstone at Big Bluff, near Sussex Corner, New Brunswick, Canada, consisting of about 2500 plants in 2018 and 2022. This occurrence is disjunct by ~450 km from the eastern limit of the known range of Douglas’ Knotweed in southwestern Maine, USA. The nearest known occurrence in Canada is in southern Quebec, ~660 km from Big Bluff. Several lines of evidence indicate that the population in New Brunswick is native. New state records for Wisconsin and Alaska found in online data sources are also verified. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Invasive species are a prominent driver of global environmental change and management of biological invasions is a complex issue that requires attention to social and ecological contexts. Management efforts implemented without consideration of social dimensions have often been delayed or have failed due to community resistance. Despite this, much invasive species research has focused solely on the ecological dynamics of invasions. To advance our understanding of the social dimensions of efforts to confront invasive species, we analyze decision-making among stakeholders impacted by starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa), a freshwater alga and key emerging invader in lakes in the upper midwestern US that, to our knowledge, has not been explored in the human dimensions of invasive species literature. Through a content analysis of 46 semi-structured interviews with stakeholders associated with lakes invaded by N. obtusa in Indiana, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, we assess stakeholders' management preferences and the factors that shape both preferences and current practices. We examine current management strategies, perceptions of the importance of addressing starry stonewort, and stakeholder goals, as well as motivational and structural factors that shape and potentially limit decision-making. We highlight two "lake ethics" that emerge from our results where stakeholders see lakes as either a public good or an exclusive resource. We present a typology of these two distinct lake ethics and explore their implications for future efforts to manage N. obtusa, suggesting that managers should move towards value-based approaches that consider underlying community values tied to natural resources. • Starry stonewort (Nitellopsis obtusa) is a freshwater alga and key emerging invader. • We present the first qualitative study of N. obtusa stakeholders. • Two "lake ethics" emerge where stakeholders see management distinctly. • Stakeholders fall under the "public good" or "exclusive resource" ethic. • We present a typology for helping managers move towards value-based approaches. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article offers information on the findings of a study of Wisconsin physicians' beliefs about contraception in the U.S. It further explores the views of Laura E. T. Swan, a postdoctoral research associate in the department of population health sciences at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, on how religiosity was associated with the misconceptions about contraceptives, and the lack of correct information.

The first year of the COVID‐19 pandemic in 2020 was associated with an "anthropause" in many industries, initially reducing greenhouse gas emissions and other negative anthropogenic influences. However, outdoor recreation has exploded in popularity in response to closures of indoor recreation options, increased free time, and/or increased levels of stress. We tested for the effects of the COVID‐19 pandemic on the sale of fishing licenses in Wisconsin and on vehicle counts that were observed at public lake access points in Vilas County, Wisconsin, in 2020. In the summer of 2020, fishing license sales in Wisconsin, USA, increased, particularly among first‐time license purchasers for whom cumulative sales in 2020 increased by 71% and 35% compared with the previous 5‐year average for Wisconsin residents and nonresidents, respectively. Changes in the vehicle counts at lake access points in the summer of 2020 varied considerably by lake. However, lakes with greater proportions of public shoreline experienced pandemic‐associated increases in lake visitors. Our results suggest that the distribution of recreational fishing effort in Wisconsin changed during the pandemic, potentially placing additional harvest pressures on hot spot inland lakes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• A novel integrated framework for the diagnosis of breast cancer patients is proposed. • A scheme combining feature selection and hyperparameter optimization is proposed to improve the prediction accuracy of the model. • Compared with the existing models, the proposed model has higher performance and generalization ability. In this paper, a new integrated scheme is proposed to accurately predict breast cancer, help doctors make early diagnosis and treatment plans, and improve the prognosis of patients. We selects five mainstream machine learning models: support vector machine (SVM), artificial neural network (ANN), random forest (RF), extreme gradient boosting (XGBoost) and adaptive boosting (AdaBoost). The Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database (WBCD) and Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) are used as datasets to investigate the predictive performance of these single and ensemble models. Then, we use multiple linear regression method for feature selection (FS), the experimental results show that the change of feature subset will significantly affect the performance of the model. The recall and f1-score of the five models are improved by 1.19% and 0.84% on average. After that, we apply whale optimization algorithm (WOA) to optimize the hyperparameters of the model to improve their prediction performance. In the best-case scenario, the model demonstrated improvements of 1.02% in accuracy and 1.82% in precision. In addition, we ensemble these models by stacking, investigate the performance changes of the ensemble model when different models are used as meta learners. Finally, the FS-WOA-Stacking model achieves 99.56% accuracy on WBCD and 99.65% accuracy on WDBC. Compared with the existing breast cancer prediction models, the performance of the proposed model is at an excellent level. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Teacher expertise can influence student experiences and achievement. The purpose of this study was to explore the experiences, practices, and beliefs of early elementary classroom teachers who have supplementary literacy certification in order to determine their shared characteristics and changes to their practice after earning the literacy license. Characteristics of high quality literacy teachers have been identified in previous research, however a review of the current literature revealed a lack of information regarding classroom teachers with additional literacy certification. Understanding how they utilize this expertise could have implications for educational policy. Data was collected for this phenomenological study through semi-structured one-on-one interviews and analyzed using the interpretative phenomenological analysis procedure. The sixteen participants held a Wisconsin (WI) Reading Teacher license and/or WI Reading Specialist license and taught kindergarten, first, or second grade in WI at the time of the interviews. Interpretative phenomenology and social cognitive theory provided a theoretical framework for this study. Since earning the literacy certification participants reported: increased confidence, using their new knowledge to help students, families, and colleagues, a new capacity for going beyond the prescribed curriculum, and an increased ability to meet individual student needs. The findings of this study have potential to impact school district policies for hiring and professional development as well as individual teacher decision-making around the procurement and use of literacy expertise. Student achievement in literacy may benefit from the resulting actions of educators. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Walleye Sander vitreus natural recruitment has declined in northern Wisconsin lakes over time. Several factors have been implicated to explain Walleye natural recruitment declines in Wisconsin, including climate change, Largemouth Bass Micropterus salmoides interactions, less desirable fish communities, production overharvest, and depensatory effects on recruit survival. Previous research in other systems has suggested that White Crappie Pomoxis annularis negatively influence Walleye recruitment, but interactions between Walleye recruitment and Black Crappie Pomoxis nigromaculatus have not been examined. We evaluated trends between Black Crappie and age‐0 Walleye relative abundance (catch per effort [CPE]) collected in northern Wisconsin during 1991–2017. Specifically, we tested for (1) trends in age‐0 Walleye and Black Crappie CPE over time, (2) a relationship between age‐0 Walleye and Black Crappie CPE, and (3) the influence of several abiotic and biotic covariates (including Black Crappie CPE) on age‐0 Walleye recruitment. Age‐0 Walleye CPE declined and Black Crappie CPE increased significantly during 1991–2017. Within lakes, the relationship between age‐0 Walleye and Black Crappie CPE showed a threshold effect such that age‐0 Walleye CPE was always low when Black Crappie CPE was high. Of the abiotic and biotic covariates tested to explain variability in the age‐0 Walleye and Black Crappie CPE relationship, only Black Crappie CPE was significant. Our results suggest that Black Crappie may negatively influence Walleye natural recruitment; however, we caution that our findings only reveal a pattern and not a mechanistic explanation for negative interactions between the species. Additional research is needed to test for mechanistic interactions between Walleye and Black Crappie and to inform comanagement of these species. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Drawing from Peck and Tickell's (2002) theory of roll-back and roll-out neoliberalism and Brenner et al.'s (2010) theory of variegated neoliberalism, this paper uses comparative historical analysis to understand how the state of Wisconsin suppressed its legacy of progressive environmentalism and embraced neoliberal policy over time. Specifically, this paper examines the rapid expansion of concentrated animal feeding operations (CAFOs) in Wisconsin's dairy industry since 1995. As these large CAFOs have grown in size, so have the social and environmental problems related to their use, including pollution of drinking water sources for rural communities. Based on analysis of newspaper articles between 1965-2010, I observed that that a turning point towards neoliberalism occurred with the demise of the Office of the Public Intervenor (OPI), a legally designated adversarial force unique to the state that was created in 1967 after a powerful coalition of environmental social movements defeated an attempt to merge the offices of development and environmental protection. Despite the continuous efforts of industry, the effort to weaken environmental regulations and institutions in Wisconsin failed not only in 1967, but in 1984 as well. However, by 1995, immediately after the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, the state switched their support from populist environmental social movements to industry. Through deregulation, elimination of the OPI, and the gradual dissolution of environmental social movements, the state of Wisconsin created the conditions that enabled CAFOs to expand without the "burden" of environmental regulation. Subsequently, through re-regulation, Wisconsinites lost access to legal remedies that could curb polluting practices of large CAFOs. This research is part of a larger project to understand the environmental impacts of regulatory failure in the Core as states in the Global North continue to adopt neoliberal environmental policy. • Industry in Wisconsin failed in their attempts to de/reregulate environmental regulationsuntil 1995. • Deregulation included termination of the Public Intervenor (OPI)- an environmental watchdog agency created in 1967. • De/reregulation led by the state encouraged the rapid growth of CAFOs despite the pollution they cause in rural communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Families of children receiving palliative care depict lack of respite services as a top unmet need. Although the benefits of access to respite services are notable, little is known on a state-by-state basis about respite provision or funding. The study objective was to conduct a national evaluation of pediatric respite care programs to identify and describe how states provide and fund respite care for children. The study approach adhered to the Scale for the Assessment of Narrative Review Articles quality standards using multiple data sources including engagement with the existing literature, content analyses of public-facing websites, and conversations with 40 stakeholders from 15 states. States offered respite services in a variety of ways: Medicaid waivers used to fund respite care, state-funded programs that provide respite, and philanthropy-based respite facilities. This narrative review revealed the creativity involved in different settings to improve respite access, staffing, and reimbursement. Suggestions to address the unmet respite needs of families included establishing a respite home, improving Medicaid reimbursement, expanding Medicaid waiver eligibility, providing a respite benefit through Medicaid, implementing nursing workforce initiatives, and centralizing staffing databases. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: As the death toll continues to rise in the opioid overdose epidemic, increasing access to medications for opioid use disorder (OUD), such as buprenorphine, is vital. Psychiatric clinical pharmacist practitioners (CPPs) can help bridge the gap in care but are limited in their ability to prescribe buprenorphine given federal restrictions.Objective: This study aimed to describe a pharmacist-psychiatrist collaborative practice designed to increase access to buprenorphine for OUD in rural communities by maximizing the CPP role.Practice Description: A CPP operating under a scope of practice with prescriptive authority to manage substance use disorders (SUDs) and comorbid mental health conditions was hired in June of 2020 at a rural Veterans Affairs (VA) hospital in Tomah, Wisconsin.Practice Innovation: A collaborative agreement with X-waivered psychiatrists was established to manage buprenorphine for patients with OUD.Evaluation Methods: A retrospective chart review was conducted on all patients with an OUD diagnosis from July 1, 2020, to October 31, 2021, to assess the use of medications for OUD, comorbid psychiatric, and SUD diagnoses; active naloxone prescription; and CPP involvement in care. For patients prescribed buprenorphine, their average wait time to initiation appointment was calculated in days and compared before and after CPP implementation.Results: As of October 31, 2021, there were 60 patients with OUD cared for by the Tomah VA, of whom 28 received buprenorphine comanaged with the CPP. On average, those requesting urgent access appointment for buprenorphine assessment from the CPP were seen for same-day induction appointments compared with historically an average of a 6.1 day wait for outpatient appointments and 5.8 days for scheduled inpatient inductions.Conclusion: Collaborative approaches to buprenorphine management with a CPP improve access to care. Although collaboration decreases time burden for X-waivered psychiatrists, care could be more efficient and timely if a CPP could independently induct, stabilize, and manage patients on buprenorphine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aimed to investigate the prevalence at both farm-level and calf-level and to identify the risk factors of respiratory bacterial pathogens in dairy calves in Taiwan. The status of bovine respiratory disease (BRD) was evaluated by using the Wisconsin scoring system from a total of 400 pre-weaned calves from 32 different farms in Taiwan, then the nasopharyngeal swabs were collected. The prevalence of respiratory pathogens was 84.37% at farm-level and 45.50% at calf-level, and Pasteurella multocida (P. multocida) was the most prevalent pathogen. The presence of Mycoplasma bovis (M. bovis), P. multocida, Mannheimia haemolytica (M. haemolytica) and Histophilus somni (H. somni) were all higher in BRD positive calves than BRD negative calves, but only in H. somni was significant (P<0.001). Then nine farm management risk factors were analyzed by using multivariate logistic regression models to determine the risk factors of respiratory bacterial pathogens (farm and calf-level). In the result at farm-level, only unheated colostrum was significantly associated with pathogen positive farms (Odds Ratio (OR)=11.43). At calf-level, the predominant risk factor for each pathogen, M. bovis, P. multocida, M. haemolytica and H. somni, was late first colostrum feeding (OR=272.82), unheated colostrum (OR=3.41), waste milk feeding (OR=6.59) and high pneumonia treatment cost (OR=2.52), respectively. For effective preventive measures, farmer education on milk and colostrum feeding are urgently warranted. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In the 1930s, Sister Mary Ellen O'Hanlon, O.P. (1882–1961), a Dominican Sister of Sinsinawa, Wisconsin, combined scientific and religious reasons in combating racism and anti-Semitism. A nationally recognized biologist, botanist, and college professor, she was awakened to the problem of "caste," leading her to author two important works: Racial Myths (1946) and The Heresy of Race (1950). Late in her life, she wrote an autobiography titled "Three Careers," in which she detailed the complex routes that led to her religious vocation, scientific studies, publications, and lectures and—most significantly to her— confronting caste in all its forms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, breast cancer has been successfully classified by using a hybrid model of fuzzy and neural network. For this purpose, we propose two-hybrid models namely fuzzy neural network (fuzzy NN) and fuzzy radial basis function neural network (fuzzy RBFNN). The backpropagation algorithm is employed to estimate the weights of the fuzzy NN model. The K-Means clustering and singular value decomposition are developed to estimate the parameters of the fuzzy RBFNN. The benign and malignant breast tissues data drawn from Wisconsin Breast Cancer Database (WBCD) and Wisconsin Diagnostic Breast Cancer (WDBC) are used in the classification. The variables in the data sets are the features from the digitized images of fine needle aspiration (FNA) biopsy of the breast. The result shows that both models deliver high accuracies on WBCD and WDBC data sets. However, the fuzzy NN shows slightly better performance than the fuzzy RBFNN. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Knowledge of density‐dependent responses of fish populations to exploitation is important for the sustainable management of fisheries and in structuring fish populations to meet angler desires. To better understand the density‐dependent responses of Walleye Sander vitreus to exploitation, we conducted a 10‐year, 50% annual exploitation experiment on Sherman Lake, Wisconsin, during 2007–2016. In the following order, annual exploitation goals were met through liberalized recreational angling regulations, tribal spearfishing, and physical removals (if necessary). Response variables included total and sex‐specific adult density, age‐0 and age‐1 relative abundance, age‐0 to age‐1 survival, length at maturity, individual growth, and population size structure. To control for environmental and interannual influences on adult density and recruitment, unexploited Escanaba Lake, Wisconsin, was used as a reference system. Total and sex‐specific adult density and age‐0 relative abundance did not differ between Sherman and Escanaba lakes. Age‐1 relative abundance was significantly higher and more variable under elevated exploitation compared with the reference lake. Age‐0 to age‐1 survival significantly increased between pretreatment and elevated‐exploitation time periods. Sex‐specific length at maturity significantly declined between pretreatment and elevated‐exploitation time periods. Mean juvenile length at age increased, male asymptotic length declined, and the proportional size distribution of quality‐sized Walleye declined between pretreatment and elevated‐exploitation time periods. Our results suggest that compensatory age‐0 to age‐1 survival and declines in length at maturity interacted to offset elevated‐exploitation effects on adult density. Likewise, density‐dependent growth responses were most evident in juveniles. Although the Sherman Lake Walleye population appeared resilient to elevated exploitation, we caution that this level of long‐term exploitation is likely not sustainable for most Walleye populations due to the findings of previous exploitation studies and observations of depensatory recruitment dynamics in Walleye. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Since the mid‐2000s, recruitment of Walleye Sander vitreus in some northern Wisconsin lakes has declined, potentially because of climate‐induced changes in lake environments. Yellow Perch Perca flavescens is also an ecologically and culturally important fish species in this region, but mechanisms driving Yellow Perch recruitment are unclear because of a lack of targeted sampling. Previous studies have suggested that recruitment of these two species may be regulated by similar factors, and observed declines in Walleye recruitment may be cause for concern about Yellow Perch recruitment. Our objectives were to determine if abiotic factors related to recruitment success were similar between Walleye and Yellow Perch populations in northern Wisconsin lakes and if the probability of successful Walleye recruitment was related to estimates of juvenile Yellow Perch abundance before Walleye recruitment declines were observed. We addressed these objectives using historical data from Wisconsin lakes. Random forest analysis incorporating lake‐specific averages of predictor variables indicated that winter conditions (duration or severity), growing degree days, variation in spring temperatures, peak summer temperature, and Secchi depth were important predictors of recruitment success for both species. Logistic regression indicated that before Walleye recruitment declines were observed on some lakes (2000–2006), Walleye recruitment success was related to relative abundance of juvenile Yellow Perch in mini‐fyke‐net sampling. Our results indicate that landscape‐level patterns in recruitment success for the two species are likely similar and additional research to understand Yellow Perch recruitment trends is warranted. Better information on Yellow Perch recruitment could contribute to a better understanding of Walleye recruitment trends as declines in Yellow Perch could influence prey availability and survival of age‐0 Walleye. Furthermore, potential declines in Yellow Perch could lead to changes in the numbers and size of Yellow Perch caught by anglers, which may have implications for harvest management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

As culturally important fisheries for Walleye Sander vitreus exhibit declining densities and reductions in natural recruitment, stocking has increased in popularity as a management tool in Wisconsin's Ceded Territory. Walleyes were stocked in an average of 160 lakes per year in the 1980s compared with 223 lakes per year in the 2010s. However, many Walleye fingerling stocking events are unsuccessful, with zero or few fish being detected as yearlings in electrofishing surveys the following year. We integrated 31 years of stocking and electrofishing data with lake habitat characteristics to identify factors that influence stocked fingerling survival, measured by the number of individuals stocked compared with those sampled in stocking evaluation surveys. Notably, 21% of stocking events exhibited zero returns in the following year. To handle the prominence of zeros, we used a zero‐inflated mixed‐effects model to test for effects of stocking practices and lake attributes along with lake‐level random effects. Our results suggest that the average length and stocking density are important stocking‐practice‐level characteristics, while water clarity, water temperature, and lake surface area are important lake‐level characteristics for predicting survival. Concerningly, we found a significant reduction in stocked fingerling survival through time. Managers should weigh these factors when determining whether stocking is worthwhile for the system in question and, if so, when selecting a stocking product. Although overall survival of stocked fingerlings is relatively low, better understanding stocking efficacy can help managers maximize utility of limited resources. Future work should assess stocking success in the context of recruitment to the fishery or return to creel. In light of recent work on Walleye fishery collapses and shifting environmental conditions, managers need to temper presumptions of Walleye stocking success and shepherd realistic expectations of stocking utility in regional Walleye rehabilitation efforts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]