Life Sciences Commons^™

Evaluation Of Methods Used To Improve Grasslands As Ring-Necked Pheasant (Phasianus Colchicus) Brood Habitat, Mandy Orth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Management practices designed for upland game species often focus on nest survival and hen winter survival due to the importance of these life history stages on population vital rates. However, chick survival is an important component of gallinaceous bird population dynamics, but it is poorly understood and often tends to be overlooked. Ideal brood habitat not only provides open understory for easy movement and canopy cover for protection, but also provides an abundance of arthropod foods for chicks. It has been hypothesized that restricted movement of chicks through thick vegetation in unmanaged grasslands results in lower brood survival rates. Research …

Microbial Communities And Their Impact On Bioenergy Crops In Dynamic Environments, Brandon Monier

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Native perennial grasses, such as prairie cordgrass (PCG, Spartina pectinata Link), and switchgrass (SG, Panicum virgatum L.) have a great potential as bioenergy crops, because they require fewer inputs, produce more energy, and reduce greenhouse gas emissions in comparison to annual cropping systems such as corn and soybean. SG has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for development as bioenergy crop, but studies have shown that PCG can outcompete switchgrass in terms of biomass production. These crops can also form associations with a wide variety of plant growth promoting microbes including arbuscular mycorrhial (AM) fungi. In CHAPTER 2, …

Study Of Seasonal Change And Water Stress Condition In Plant Leaf Using Polarimetric Lidar Measurement, Prabeen Kattel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Study of vegetation is of great importance to the improvement of agriculture and forest management. Although there have been various attempts to characterize vegetation using remote sensing techniques, polarimetric lidar is a novel remote sensing tool that has shown potential in vegetation remote sensing. In this thesis, a near-infrared polarimetric lidar at 1064 nm was used to investigate the effects of seasonal change and water stress condition on plant leaves. Two variables, time and water content, affected the plant leaf laser depolarization ratio measurement. The first study focused on the maple tree in order to figure out how seasonal change …

Effects Of Standards-Based Grading On Students In Agricultural Education, Matthew Tripp

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Standards-based grading is being discussed more frequently in the field of education as school districts either explore or adopt this grading method. This study examined the effects of standards-based grading on achievement and perceptions of students enrolled in high school agricultural education courses. This nonequivalent quasi-experimental study focused on how students’ perceptions of classroom feedback, abilities, and opportunities to redo assessments were affected by the implementation of a standards-based grading method. Participants in this study were students who enrolled in a quarter long Home Maintenance course that used standards-based grading methods to assess student mastery on specific content standards in …

Evaluation Of Berberine As An Alternative To Antibiotics In Nursery Pig Diets, Emily Scholtz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Pig weaning process results in reduced growth performance and gut health of weaned pigs. Antibiotics can be added in diets for weaned pigs to improve growth performance and gut health, but their use is being discouraged because they can lead to development of antimicrobial resistant microorganisms. Thus, there is need for alternatives to antibiotics in diets for weaned pigs. The overall goal of this thesis research was to determine the effects of plant extracts (berberine, quercetin, and allyl isothiocyante [AITC]) as alternatives to antibiotics in weaned pig diets. The first objective of the research was to determine in vitro antimicrobial …

Perceptions Of Green Eating Behaviors On College Campuses In An Urban Vs. Rural Setting, Gabriella G. Nowicki

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Background: Green Eating is a multidisciplinary approach to health in economic, public health, and environmental issues. GE has an evident impact on the quality of life in young adults, especially those on college campuses. Current evidence already supports an improved dietary intake in those who adopt GE behaviors. Objective: To determine if a university’s campus location affects first-year students’ exposure to green eating. We hypothesize that first-year students on university campuses located in urban settings are more likely to report GE awareness and practices than in rural settings.
Methods: First-year students were recruited for the GetFruved study in late summer …

Identification Of Qtl Modifying The Activity Of The Tcb1-S Locus And Characterization And Sequencing Of Two Plutonium-Beryllium Induced Reduced Gametophyte Transmission Mutants In Maize, Merritt Bryer Burch

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This thesis is split into two independent projects both involving the male gametophyte generation of maize. The first project looks at how pollen interacts with the female gametophyte to reduce its transmission in cross-incompatible reactions controlled by the unilateral cross-incompatibility system, teosinte crossing barrier 1. The second project explores two plutonium-beryllium induced male gametophyte mutants and attempts to uncover their genetic basis.

Identification of QTL Modifying the Activity of the Tcb1-s Locus
Teosinte crossing barrier 1 (Tcb1) is a unilateral cross-incompatibility system present in maize that provides a pre-zygotic pistil barrier to plants carrying Tcb1-s (strong allele) from pollen …

What Is The Value Of Corn Residue To Grazing Cattle?, Emily Ann Petzel

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The United States produces over 370,840,000,000 kg of corn grain and concomitantly more than 303,410,000,000 kg DM of non-grain corn residues (i.e., leaves, husks and stalk) from grain production annually. Although there is an abundance of available corn residue, only 12% of land planted to corn is grazed after harvest (Schmer, 2017), and based on current estimates of nutrient composition (NASEM, 2016), while 30% of available corn residues could maintain the entire United States cow herd. Grazing cattle often select diets with greater nutrient density and digestibility in comparison to the overall biomass available; however, most estimates of nutrient density …

Mechanisms By Which Mechanotransduction Promotes Proliferation In Keratinocytes, Chhavi Chaudhary

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Chronic wounds are wounds that do not heal within 30 days and often they can last over a year. Interference in any of the wound healing stages may hinder the process. Some of the local and systemic factors such as infection, old age, diabetes, AIDS, and the regular application of corticoids may also have negative effects on the healing process. Cell proliferation is an important phase in epidermal wound healing in which surviving epithelial cells replicate independently into daughter cells through mitosis and maintain a balance between cell growth and cell loss during the cell cycle. Physical and chemical stimuli …

Evaluation Of Alternative Weed Hosts And Management Strategies For Soybean Cyst Nematode In South Dakota, Pawan Basnet

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The soybean cyst nematode (SCN; Heterodera glycines, Ichinohe) is an important pathogen of soybean in South Dakota which causes significant yield losses. SCN has been found in 30 South Dakota counties as on 2017 and is estimated to cause yield loss of 1.9 Metric tons (Mt) annually. SCN has diverse crop and weed hosts as it can reproduce in several crops and weeds. The presence of Heterodera glycines (HG) types can reduce the effectiveness of SCN-resistant cultivars and the HG types reproduction on weed hosts can negate the effectiveness of crop rotation by continued build-up in the field. This …

Effects Of Yogurt Fortification With Different Legumes Protein On The Physio-Chemical, Microbiological, And Rheological Properties, Prachi Pahariya

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Nowadays, yogurt (a nutritious fermented dairy product) is getting popular around all over the world due to beneficial action provided by bacteria present in yogurt culture. Along with that, diet plans, which are high in protein and low in fat, has become appealing for growing healthy conscious population that makes a huge shift toward plantbased protein consumption. Therefore, the main objective of this research was to study the effects of yogurt fortification with extracted protein of different beans (legumes)- pinto and kidney beans on the physio-chemical (Moisture, Fat, Protein, Ash, Total Solids Content (TSC), pH, Titratable Acidity (TA), Water Holding …

Improving The Nutritional Characteristics Of Plant Feedstuff By-Products Using Fungal Metabolism, Jacob Zahler

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plant feedstuff by-products such as soy processing wastewater, guar korma meal, and sorghum hominy are very different, however, all possess a rich nutrient profile. Lessening their value is the presence of lignocellulose, plant anti-nutritional factors, and unfavorable protein profiles. Fungal conversion processes are an attractive approach to improving the value of these by-products by degrading detrimental fractions of each while simultaneously creating nutrient-rich cell mass. The aim of this research was to improve the value of each by-product for potential application in monogastric diets such as fish. Fungal organisms, both yeast and filamentous fungi, were examined for their ability to …

Evaluating Bighorn Sheep Herd Response After Selective Removal Of Mycoplasma Ovipneumoniae Chronic Shedders, Tyler J. Garwood

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Infected individuals vary in their contribution to disease persistence, and chronically infected individuals may sustain disease in a population. One disease that might persist in a population through chronically infected individuals is pneumonia in wild sheep. Mycoplasma ovipneumoniae (Mo), a pathogen of Caprinae commonly present in domestic sheep and goats, strongly correlates with pneumonia epizootics when it infects wild sheep populations. These epizootics can cause 40-100% herd mortality in an initial all-age dieoff, precipitate annual lamb mortality as high as 100% in following years, and sustain adult mortality long after initial all-age dieoffs. We conducted an experiment in the Black …

Adoption Of Conservation Practices And Precision Technologies In South Dakota: An Empirical Analysis, Allen P. Deutz

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Advances in conservation agriculture and precision agriculture technology practices have contributed to the adoption of conservation practices that reduce externalities from agricultural production, but this conversion was usually coupled with economic incentive, whether from increases in fertility and yield, or payments for on farm retirement or restoration practices. This study expands on this theme, evaluating the connection between conservation and the increased use of various precision agriculture technologies. The study uses survey data collected from South Dakota farmers and ranchers, with responses from 28 counties and over 500,000 acres of crop, pasture, and range land to address the following three …

Distribution, Ecology, Disease Risk, And Genetic Diversity Of Swift Fox (Vulpes Velox) In The Dakotas, Emily Louise Mitchell

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The swift fox (Vulpes velox), a native species once abundant throughout the Northern Great Plains (NGP), has declined due to changes in land use, historic predator eradication programs, and predation by larger canid species. Currently, the species is estimated to occupy 44% of its historic range. In the NGP, the status of the swift fox varies by state, ranging from furbearer to endangered species. However, knowledge of the current status of swift foxes in the NGP is lacking due to an absence of systematic population monitoring. Improving the current state of knowledge concerning swift fox populations in the …

Western Prairie Stream Fisheries: An Assessment Of Past And Present Fish Assemblage Structure, Biotic Homogenization, And Population Dynamics In Western South Dakota Streams, Stephen Jones

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Biodiversity is declining globally, especially in in aquatic systems. Prairies are one of the most endangered ecosystem types in North America, and their conversion into agriculture or development as a result of urbanization has had negative effects on prairie stream fish communities. Continued monitoring of fish assemblage change and the population dynamics of prairie stream fishes will provide researchers and managers with valuable information needed to detect and mitigate past and future negative impacts on prairie stream aquatic ecosystems. Sampling was conducted in the mainstem and tributaries of the Grand, Moreau, Cheyenne, Bad, and White rivers within western South Dakota. …

A Quantitative Environmental Assessment Of Incorporating Torrefaction Into Farming Enterprises In Eastern South Dakota, Dinesh Fuyal

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The use of renewable energy sources has been increasing in the recent years due to population growth and environmental concerns. Biomass is a promising energy source that can be used to produce biofuels or torrefied pellets. Torrefied biomass may be used in power plants, industrial and residential heating, feedstocks for gasification, air and water filtrating, and soil amendment. The interest of torrefied pellets as energy sources for various applications has been increased in the recent years due to the concerns about energy security and environmental issues. This study focuses on the economic and environmental assessment of agricultural feedstocks like corn …

Impacts Of Altered Precipitation Frequency, Clipping, And Competition On Perennial Grasses Mediated Through Belowground Bud Bank In Northern Mixed-Grass Prairie, Surendra Bam

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Perennial grasslands are remarkably resilient to severe natural and anthropogenic disturbances. Such resiliency largely depends on successful tiller recruitment and establishment from belowground bud banks. In the northern Great Plains, introduced perennial smooth bromegrass (Bromus inermis) has been rapidly invading and transforming larger tracts of native prairies by replacing native perennial species, such as western wheatgrass (Pascopyrum smithii), reducing biodiversity and quality of habitats, and increasing vulnerability of grasslands to other environmental disturbances. In this study, we evaluated the response of belowground bud production, tiller and rhizome recruitment, and plant establishment between the native P. smithii …

Nutritional Value Of Modified Novel Oilseed Meals In Teleost Diets, Tom Kasiga

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Carinata Brassica carinata and camelina Camelina sativa are being genetically modified to improve their composition for biofuel production and other agricultural applications. After oil extraction, the residual de-oiled meals (40%) in protein. However, their inclusion in animal feeds is limited to 10% because of high levels of antinutritional factors (ANFs), mainly glucosinolates (GLS), sinapine, and crude fiber that limit diet intake, nutrient utilization, and lower thyroxine production, resulting in reduced growth. The nutritional value of carinata and camelina seed meals to fish were assessed by subjecting cold pressed (CP) carinata and camelina meals to extrusion (EX), solvent extraction (SE) and …

Evaluation Of Carinata Meal In Dairy Heifer Feeding Programs, Karla Rodriguez-Hernandez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

The main purpose of this body of research was to evaluate carinata meal as a feedstuff for dairy heifers and lay the foundations for its future evaluation in lactating dairy cow diets. This research focused on evaluating the taste preference of carinata meal compared with other oilseeds meals and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS). Despite containing glucosinolates, carinata meal was preferred similarly to canola meal, had greater preference compared to camelina meal, and less preference compared to the other meals. Next, we used a limit-feeding strategy in two different feeding studies, to determine the effect of feeding carinata meal …

Study Of Anti-Proliferative Activity Of Cucurbitacins Inspired Estrone Analogs On Hepatocellular Carcinoma, Sara Elgazwi

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) is considered the third leading cause of death from cancer. Overall survival rate is significantly low, due to the emerging resistance to chemotherapeutic agents and lack of selectivity. Recent studies have demonstrated that epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) is a promising molecular target for cancer therapy, especially HCC. Current studies showed that cucurbitacins are potent anticancer compounds which target EGFR. This prompted us to investigate the antiproliferative activity of novel cucurbitacins inspired estrone analogs (CIEA) against sensitive and resistant HepG2 cell lines. Anti-proliferation activity of 20 CIEA analogs were examined against HepG2 using MTT assay and showed …

Exploiting The Genetic Diversity Of Wild Ancestors And Relatives Of Wheat For Its Improvement, Jagdeep Singh Sidhu

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Wheat is the third most staple food worldwide but current 1% annual improvement in the wheat production is insufficient to meet the growing demands in future. The narrow genetic base of wheat limits continuous improvement in wheat productivity and tolerance to biotic and abiotic stresses under changing climate. Wild ancestors and relatives of wheat hold a potential in widening the genetic pool of wheat and enhance its resilience to biotic and abiotic stresses. This study was focused towards characterizing the genetic diversity in wild relatives of wheat for disease resistance and efficient association with diazotrophs. In the first study, we …

Evaluation Of Dietary Phytochemicals As Rumen Modifiers In Lactating Dairy Cows, Sonia Rodriguez Jimenez

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Phytochemicals such as tannins included in dairy cow nutritional programs, as a natural feed additive, promise to improve rumen bypass protein and consequently reduce the feeding cost by decreasing the amount of CP needed in the ration. Additionally, if tannins are fed along with high quality protein sources, this could improve the AA profile reaching the small intestine and potentially improving health and performance of dairy cows. The black pepper, specifically its alkaloid piperine, is a nontoxic, natural dietary compound with a broad range of physiological activity. Lactating dairy cows ingesting these phytochemicals (tannin extracts and black pepper) will potentially …

Efficiency Of Utilizing Standardized Ileal Digestible Lys And Thr For Whole Body Protein Retention In Pregnant Gilts During Early, Mid And Late Gestation, Ron Aldwin Sapin Navales

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

In pregnant pigs, amino acid (AA) requirements represent the sum of those required for maintenance functions, protein retention and efficiency of utilizing AA intake for the aforementioned body processes. The NRC (2012) model assumed AA efficiency is constant across period of gestation; however this is not reflective of the changes in metabolic demand during gestation. Therefore, two experiments were conducted to evaluate the efficiency of utilizing SID Lys and Thr for whole body protein retention (kSIDLys and kSIDThr) in pregnant gilts during early, mid and late gestation. Three 12 d N-balance studies were conducted to represent different periods of gestation. …

Modeling Soil Organic Carbon In Select Soils Of Southeastern South Dakota, Shaina Westhoff

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Soil organic matter (SOM) is composed of living biomass, dead plant and animal residues, and humus. Humus is a class of complex, organic molecules that are largely responsible for improving soil water holding capacity, nutrient mineralization, nutrient storage, and other critical soil functions. Soil organic carbon (SOC) accounts for approximately 60 percent of SOM and thus SOC is recognized as a strong indicator of soil health. Land use changes and intense cultivation of arable soils in the United States over the past century have led to large decreases in SOM. The objective of this research was to develop a multiple …

Replication, Virulence, And Pathogenesis Of Influenza Viruses, Chithra Chembil Sreenivasan

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Influenza D virus (IDV) is a novel influenza virus that infects cattle and swine, with cattle as its primary host species. The goal of our first study was to investigate the replication and transmission of bovine IDV in guinea pigs. Following direct intranasal inoculation of animals, the virus was detected in nasal washes of infected animals during the first 7 days post-infection. High viral titers were obtained from nasal turbinates and lung tissues of directly inoculated animals. Further, bovine IDV was able to transmit from the infected guinea pigs to sentinel animals by means of contact and not by aerosol …

Stability Analysis Of Immunogenic Gliadin Accumulation In Hard Red Spring Wheat (Triticum Aestivum L.), Stacy Lindblom-Dreis

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Misconceptions regarding plant breeding objectives have led to speculation regarding the increasing prevalence of gluten intolerance, wheat allergy, and celiac disease. It is thought that contemporary wheat cultivars accumulate more immunogenic proteins than older cultivars because of supposed genetic changes effected through plant breeding strategies. This study evaluated the stability of gliadin accumulation in 191 hard red spring wheat cultivars grown in 12 location-years. Two enzyme-linked immunosorbent assays (ELISAs) were developed. A paired t test (N = 34) failed to find a statistically significant difference between the experimental ELISAs and the commercial R5 assay measures of mean gliadin (t = …

Characterization Of Anthocyanins In Aronia, Theodore Mohr

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Anthocyanins function as antioxidants and offer numerous other health benefits, such as anti-atherogenic and anti-inflammation protection, and may aid in the prevention of degenerative diseases. Aronia berries, uniquely high in anthocyanins, have a great potential in improving human wellness. The objectives of this study were: (1) to develop a rapid and reproducible analytical method for estimating the anthocyanin amount in Aronia berries; and (2) to determine the effect of growing conditions on anthocyanin concentration. A standard curve method was established based on anthocyanin absorbance in the visible range. The results reveal that the developed protocol could yield rapid and reproducible …

Expression Analyses And Identification Of Key Molecular Participants In Plant Responses To Environmental Cues, Praveena Kanchupati

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Plants constantly engage and interact with the environment and respond to the changes in conditions like temperature, water, and photoperiod, by regulating expression of genes of multiple regulatory and signaling pathways. Insight into these pathways and their participants has provided and will provide candidates to improve various agronomically important traits in crops through marker-assisted breeding and genetic manipulation. With this aim in mind, in the present study, I attempted to identify key candidate genes that are involved in the regulation of; i) plant response to low temperature stress, ii) plant roots’ response to soil moisture content and iii) flowering time. …

Quantifying The Short-Term Impacts Of Cover Crops And Grazing On Soil Health Under An Integrated Crop-Livestock System In South Dakota, Vishal Seth

Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Cover crops and grazing under Integrated Crop-Livestock System (ICLS) can impact the rhizosphere nutrient cycling and may have potential to increase the long-term sustainability and economic profitability of agricultural production system. In South Dakota, crop production practices and livestock husbandry are both common which provide the opportunity for ICLS to be successful in this region. However, little is known about the impacts of the cover crops and grazing under ICLS on soil properties in this region. The present study was conducted at South Dakota State University Research Farm (44°20'34.8"N, 96°48'14.8"W), Brookings, SD, to quantify the impacts of cover crops and …