Barn swallows have returned in full force, sometimes seeming to completely take over the barn and ranch.
Uncertain when the unique birds started arriving this spring or when they left last year.
When barn swallows come, their presence is made most aware. As many as a dozen will swoop out of the barn nests and into the yard. They can give the feeling of wanting to attack but then glide right back up into the air.
The barn swallow is the most abundant and widely distributed swallow species in the world, according to bird specialists. It breeds throughout the Northern Hemisphere and winters in much of the Southern Hemisphere.
Barn swallows once nested in caves throughout North America, but now build their nests almost exclusively on human-made structures.
Horses are cautious of barn swallows initially and hesitate to move forward until becoming accustomed to the birds’ flight patterns.
Perhaps the little birds don’t feel secure around the horses either at first either. They can act territorial around their nests and will dive-bomb making alarm calls if feeling threatened. Fluffy the ranch cat was a target of one.
Nests really do make a mess on barn stall rafters and ceilings. Because it takes around two weeks for a pair to build a nest from mud, hair, and other materials, old nests are highly prized. So, there are old nests from several years with new ones added each year.
About 44 percent of all barn swallows will return to nest in the same area they nested in the previous year. If the birds decide to renovate their old nest, they begin by throwing out and replacing old nesting material. They then add more mud around the nest’s rim.
Uncertain exactly how many swallows there are in the barn and wonder if any of them have been here before.
There’s supposed to be an enormous benefit to having barn swallows. They are good at harvesting insects and reducing the number of harmful bugs like black widow spiders and biting flies.
Barn swallows can evidently be scared away if desired but there’s no intention of doing such a thing.
Reminded of Psalm 84.3: “The bird has found a house, And the swallow a nest for herself, where she may lay her young, Even Your altars, O Lord my God.”
+++ALLELUIA+++
XVII–27–7-2-2023
Swallows Take Over Barn
“Do Not Miss the Signs of a Blood Clot”
The patient was young, healthy, and short of breath. She had not been sick recently, other than a minor cough. Her oxygen level was normal and her lungs sounded clear. Her heart rate was a little fast and she was breathing rather quickly, too. She was anxious about it, but she knew there was more to this than anxiety. Meanwhile, she was taking an antibiotic for bronchitis which did not seem to be helping. We did some additional tests, some blood work, to look for other possible causes. One test result gave us a big clue: her “d-dimer” was elevated. While not tied to a specific diagnosis, this gave us more reason to keep looking.
We proceeded to get a CT pulmonary angiogram, a special scan of the chest, specifically looking at the vessels that run from the heart to the lungs, looking for a blood clot. Sure enough, that is what it was: a pulmonary embolism. The treatment was medication to help thin the blood, which helps the clot to gradually dissolve. She was relieved to know the cause of her symptoms and within days she was feeling better.
Without treatment a pulmonary embolism, or blood clot in the lungs, can be fatal. Thus, early detection and treatment is key. Unfortunately, detecting it may be difficult, especially since the symptoms are often vague and common with numerous other illnesses.
In addition to shortness of breath, coughing, wheezing, coughing up blood, or pain with breathing can be symptoms of a blood clot. Another hallmark symptom of a blood clot may be calf pain or swelling. Unexplained swelling and pain of a limb may indicate a deep vein thrombosis (DVT), a blood clot in the leg or arm. Left untreated, a DVT can become larger and may break off and go through the heart to the lung vessels and cause a pulmonary embolism (PE).
A person may be at increased risk of a clot due to a genetic condition, an illness, pregnancy, after surgery, after an injury, because of cancer, or because of medications such as birth control pills. Covid has been a more recent cause. Sometimes a clot happens for no apparent reason. Prolonged travel is also a reason, so on a long drive or flight, take time to stop and stretch your legs. Wearing high compression socks while traveling may also be helpful.
Shortness of breath can be a symptom of numerous ailments, major or minor. No matter the reason, however, please consult your doctor if you are short of breath or have unexplained swelling of an arm or leg. It could be a blood clot.
Andrew Ellsworth, M.D. is part of The Prairie Doc® team of physicians and currently practices family medicine in Brookings, South Dakota. Follow The Prairie Doc® at www.prairiedoc.org and on Facebook featuring On Call with the Prairie Doc® a medical Q&A show based on science, built on trust for 21 seasons, streaming live on Facebook most Thursdays at 7 p.m. central.
KU News: Reliable internal candidates preferred over more qualified external ones, according to new study
From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
Headlines
Contact: Jon Niccum, KU News Service, 785-864-7633, [email protected]
Reliable internal candidates preferred over more qualified external ones, according to new study
LAWRENCE – Working hard is regarded as a strong motivation for earning a promotion. But new research suggests companies that are hiring favor such extra effort when displayed by internal candidates even more than better-qualified external candidates.
“People will sometimes undervalue the work they’ve done, the knowledge they’ve gathered by being at a specific location and the relationship they’ve developed with a manager. So when making hiring decisions, we show how that quality really matters,” said Jeremy Lill, associate professor of business and the Jack and Shirley Howard Mid-Career Professor at the University of Kansas.
His new paper “Promote Internally or Hire Externally? The Role of Gift Exchange and Performance Measurement Precision” reveals that employees exert costly effort to increase the chance of being promoted, and they raise their effort level as the hiring decision becomes imminent. Managers respond by promoting those who exert greater effort, despite employees’ inferior ability compared to external candidates. The article is published in the Journal of Accounting Research.
“When managers are deciding how to fill an open position, they’re either going to promote internally within the organization or go externally and find somebody to come in. In general, in the external pool of candidates there’s going to be somebody who is more qualified, simply because it’s a broader pool,” said Lill, who co-wrote the article with Eric Chan of the University of Texas and Victor Maas of the University of Amsterdam.
But their research indicates superior resumes become secondary considerations when compared to valued qualities exhibited by internal candidates. The study also determines that less precise performance measurement systems, like those used in remote work and less-monitored labor settings, presents internal employees with even more of an advantage when it comes to capitalizing on promotions.
“What we find is if there’s not a precise measurement of what people are doing, many people will work hard to overcome that imprecision, and managers are more likely to reward people with internal promotions because of this kind of ambiguity that’s out there,” Lill said.
Basically, employers are investing in trusting workers to do the right thing. And when evidence implies their effort is competent and efficient, such individuals are usually rewarded.
His team tested this theory using a two-stage experiment involving 138 business students from the University of Texas acting as employee and manager prior to an impending hiring decision. In Stage 1, the employee selects an effort level during several initial periods – higher effort levels prove more costly to the individual but produce higher expected output. At the end of each period, the manager learns the employee’s output.
In stage 2, a new higher-level job becomes available, and the manager must fill this slot by either promoting the current employee or hiring an external candidate. If the manager chooses to promote the employee to the higher-level job, then the external applicant will fill the employee’s original job; if the external applicant is hired to fill the higher-level job, then the current employee will remain in the original job. After the manager makes this promote/hire decision, the current and newly hired workers select their effort levels in each of three later periods.
“We’re testing the gift exchange theory,” he said of a metric designed to determine the effort poured in by an individual in a person-to-person relationship.
“In other settings, treatments and observations where that theory would apply, then I would expect this would replicate in a real-world setting. Essentially, gifts beget gifts.”
Having also attended KU as an undergraduate, Lill has served as a faculty member since 2019. He teaches managerial accounting, and his research focuses on control system design and employee motivation.
“Working hard before promotion — especially going above and beyond your normal job description— is taking a risk because you’d much rather not be doing it than doing it,” Lill said.
“But we find that, in general, managers do respond. They appreciate and reward that risk.”
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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
KU News: KU professor curates summer show in Seoul to create space for mother-artists
From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
Headlines
Contact: Rick Hellman, KU News Service, 785-864-8852, [email protected], @RickHellman
KU professor curates summer show in Seoul to create space for mother-artists
LAWRENCE — Here’s how hard it is to be a mother and artist in South Korea these days: Two of the 14 artists Sunyoung Cheong had lined up for a show there this summer had to drop out.
“I started with the 14 artists last year, but the one of them, her husband got a new job in America. They moved to California, so she couldn’t do it,” said Cheong, University of Kansas assistant professor of visual art. “And the other one, she is the sole caretaker for her children due to her husband’s busy job, and her husband is out of town. So she couldn’t do it either. It’s difficult for them to stay for the exhibition. And yet that is my role as curator – to encourage mother-artists to continue their art practice under discouraging and unexpected circumstances.”
Cheong, who makes jewelry, often with a honeybee motif, said she began thinking about a show of mother-artists nearly a decade ago when she was a graduate student and a young mother herself.
“My plan was to create a platform for mother-artists, mostly in metalsmithing — some of them focusing on hollowware and some of them focusing on jewelry,” Cheong said. “Most of these artists had good careers; they all have MFA degrees, and then they did successful exhibitions before they become mothers.
“But in Korean society, the conventional idea is that child care is all the mother’s job. It should be their No. 1 priority, their duty. So even though these artists had great careers, once they have children, it’s really difficult to continue their career as an artist, because being an artist is not thought of as an actual job.”
Moreover, Cheong said, many South Korean artists live in high-rise buildings in Seoul and other big cities, where it’s difficult, if not impossible, to maintain a studio and particularly to work with metal.
“The impact of having children in craft is much more critical because disciplines like metalsmithing or ceramics require heavy equipment, various tools and chemicals that are not suitable for home studios with young children,” Cheong said. “Oftentimes these studios require a good-sized space with good ventilation. This makes it very challenging, especially for artists who live in city like Seoul.”
To address this issue to the public and to support mother-artists, this curatorial project investigates why motherhood affects the life of visual artists, particularly in the craft discipline. It also gives an opportunity to think about how to create a sustainable platform for talented mother-artists in future art practice.
“I wanted to create small communities to support each other and give them some steppingstones so that they can continue to do their practice,” Cheong said.
Cheong said she began curating the show in earnest before the COVID-19 pandemic lockdowns caused a delay. Then, during her last visit to Seoul a year ago, Cheong stopped by the Gallery Ahwon, which she described as a respected home for arts and crafts there, to pitch the operators on her idea for a show of mother-artists. And although she had no previous affiliation with the gallery, she got the green light.
Cheong said many of the artists couldn’t commit to creating new works for the show, so she didn’t assign them a particular theme to execute. Rather, she said, the mother-artist herself is the show’s theme.
“They can make anything they can possibly make in their circumstance,” Cheong said. “If they don’t have a studio in their home, they can use whatever material they can use to create the work. … It doesn’t have to be multiples; you can create just one work. And if you don’t have access to a studio for using metal, you can just use alternative materials like paper or fabric.”
Thus, one of the objects in the show, Cheong said, was created by knitting metal wire. Another was created by casting plastic resin. Cheong is bringing some of her jewelry.
The show runs July 5-15, and Cheong said she hoped a similar exhibition could be repeated every other year.
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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
KU News: KU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa initiates 82 new members
From the Office of Public Affairs | http://www.news.ku.edu
Headlines
Editors: Note Kansas initiates from Barber, Butler, Cherokee, Crawford, Douglas, Ford, Franklin, Jefferson, Johnson, Leavenworth, Lyon, Miami, Riley, Saline, Sedgwick and Shawnee counties.
Contact: Harry Swartz, University Honors Program, [email protected]
KU chapter of Phi Beta Kappa initiates 82 new members
LAWRENCE — The University of Kansas Alpha chapter of Phi Beta Kappa academic honor society has initiated 82 new members.
Jennifer Harrison, president of KU’s Phi Beta Kappa chapter and director of the Business Leadership Program and Jack Dicus Business Honors Program, presided at the May 14 ceremony. Initiates were individually recognized, presented with a certificate of membership and invited to sign their names in the chapter register — a tradition that dates to 1912.
Charlie Bankart, KU’s senior internationalization officer, was inducted as an honorary member of Phi Beta Kappa and delivered remarks on the value of the liberal arts and sciences. 2021 Phi Beta Kappa inductee Aylar Atadurdyyeva, graduating senior in political science, microbiology, global & international studies and Slavic studies, gave the student response.
Election to Phi Beta Kappa recognizes a student’s high academic achievement while pursuing a broad and substantive liberal arts curriculum. To be eligible for consideration for membership, students must be seniors with a minimum grade-point average of 3.65 on a 4.0 scale, or be juniors with a minimum 3.9. Anonymous transcripts of candidates are reviewed holistically by a committee of Phi Beta Kappa faculty and staff members.
Phi Beta Kappa, the oldest national academic honorary society, was founded Dec. 5, 1776, at the College of William & Mary in Williamsburg, Virginia. KU’s Alpha chapter, founded in 1890, was the first chapter west of the Mississippi and is one of 286 Phi Beta Kappa chapters nationwide. About 10% of institutions of higher learning in the United States have Phi Beta Kappa chapters. The chapter’s vice president is Dietrich Earnhart, professor of economics and director of the Center for Environmental Policy. The secretary-treasurer is Harry Swartz, assistant director of admissions for the University Honors Program. Sarah Crawford-Parker, director of the University Honors Program, serves as the chapter’s historian.
Elected members from Kansas are listed below, while the complete list of initiates is available online.
Barber County
1. Carson Cargill, Isabel
Butler County
2. Camden Baxter, Andover
Cherokee County
3. Shayla Sturgis, Columbus
Crawford County
4. Amber Dial, Pittsburg
5. Ximena Ibarra, Pittsburg
Douglas County
6. Katherine Ahern, Lawrence
7. Anika Goel, Lawrence
8. Thomas Guier, Lawrence
9. Sophia Hady, Lawrence
10. Tim Lewis, Lawrence
11. Aalana Samuels, Lawrence
12. Landon Sloan, Lawrence
13. Ezra Steinshouer, Baldwin City
14. Bhavini Uppalapu, Lawrence
Ford County
15. Natalie Garcia Rojas, Dodge City
Franklin County
16. Lauren Dandreo, Ottawa
Jefferson County
17. Savannah Warren, Oskaloosa
Johnson County
18. August Chowning, Lenexa
19. Rebecca Bachmuth, Overland Park
20. Johnny Dinh Phan, Overland Park
21. Sydney Ebner, Shawnee
22. Audrey Grabmeier, Shawnee
23. Henry Haw, Mission Hills
24. Nicolas James, Overland Park
25. Molly Kaemmer, Overland Park
26. George Kircher, Overland Park
27. James McFarlin, Overland Park
28. Josh Mcghee, Olathe
29. Joe Mirakian, Olathe
30. Umar Nasim, Overland Park
31. Albert Park, Overland Park
32. Meaghan Peters, Overland Park
33. Audrey Rips-Goodwin, Overland Park
34. Dylan Robertson, Lenexa
35. Karryn Robinson, Overland Park
36. Gabriela Ruiz, Overland Park
37. Rachel Stander, Olathe
38. Caroline Steele, Olathe
39. Katie Vanbeber, Overland Park
Leavenworth County
40. Lane Barrette, Basehor
Lyon County
41. Angela Davis, Olpe
42. Tonielle Miller, Emporia
Miami County
43. Claire Cox, Paola
Riley County
44. Rachell Orce, Manhattan
45. Salem Sanfilippo Solin, Manhattan
46. Tanya Singh, Manhattan
Saline County
47. Madeline Blake, Assaria
48. Gabby Fischer, Salina
49. Lauren Tubal, Salina
Sedgwick County
50. Samuel Harder, Wichita
51. Sarah Reichart, Andale
Shawnee County
52. Claire Bowman, Berryton
53. Irene Caracioni, Topeka
54. Daniel Cluff, Topeka
55. Haley Kucera, Topeka
56. Meredith Loehr, Topeka.
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KU News Service
1450 Jayhawk Blvd.
Lawrence KS 66045
Phone: 785-864-3256
Fax: 785-864-3339
[email protected]
http://www.news.ku.edu
Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, director of news and media relations, [email protected]
Today’s News is a free service from the Office of Public Affairs
