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Swine Research Industry, Alyssa Abendroth '24

Distinguished Student Work

My business research revolved around biosecurity and disease. My inquiry was led by the question How common are diseases in commercial swine units and how can they be prevented from a staff personnel standpoint?. I completed my research by gaining knowledge through experience in my internship, as well as a literature review. I could not find an explicit response to how common diseases are, but I did learn about biosecurity and disease prevention.

Water Management, Imsa Fusion

An Epidemiological Approach to Addressing Food Insecurity

Objectives:

• Develop a technique to measure the porosity of soil.
• Explain how a high water table can reduce crop yields.
• Design and test a drainage tiling system.

Row Spacing Models, Imsa Fusion

An Epidemiological Approach to Addressing Food Insecurity

Objectives:

• Identify multiple row spacing models used by soybean farmers and determine how these planting arrangements impact crop yield.
• Explore how row spacing influences the amount of access that a plant has to the natural resources it needs to grow.
• Recommend a row spacing model that considers overall yield, economic efficiency, and potential environmental threats for a hypothetical farmer.

Soil Science, Imsa Fusion

An Epidemiological Approach to Addressing Food Insecurity

Objectives:

• Understand that soil is composed of inorganic and organic solid material, water, and air.·Investigate the properties of the inorganic solid components of soil: sand, silt, and clay.
• Recognize that varying proportions of sand, silt, and clay in a soil impact the soil’s ability to hold and transmit water. Experimentally determine the soil texture of a local soil sample.
• Determine the chemical composition of a local soil sample for pH, nitrate, phosphorus, and potassium levels.
• Analyze a given soil’s ability to support crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, and oats.
• Provide recommendations for amending a given soil to support the …

Biological Variation, Imsa Fusion

An Epidemiological Approach to Addressing Food Insecurity

Objectives:

• Identify different phenotypes of corn (maize) kernels.
• Use ratios and sampling to determine which of two different ears of corn is most likely to have produced a given sample of kernels.
• Use Punnett Squares to determine the genotypes of the “parents” that produced the different kernel samples.
• Compare and contrast traditional selective breeding techniques with genetically engineering a desired trait in corn.
• Model the regulation of gene expression in a hypothetical cell.
• Discuss the potential role that epigentic variation may play in improving corn crops of the future.