Digital Commons Network^™

Developing And Extending Sustainable Agriculture: A New Social Contract, Michele Schoeneberger, Gary Bentrup, Charles A. Francis, Richard Straight

United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Conclusions

Based on the practical community applications of woody buffe rs and multifuncti onal areas that grew from the ini tial concepts ofecobelts. we are convinced that this type of initiative is a viable option in establishing a positive interface between different types of human activities. The challenge becomes more real every day, as cities expand and both city-edge subdivisions and acreages create ever more interfaces between people with different and often con!1icting activities and basic values. There is a need to provide some logical and acceptable boundary between these people and their different lifestyles. It is also desirable to …

A Survey And Developmental Biology Of Iliamna Remota Greene (Malvaceae), An Endangered Species In Illinois, April Lyn Mcdonnell

Masters Theses

Iliamna remota Greene (Malvaceae), or Kankakee mallow, is an endangered species in Illinois that is limited to Langham Island in the Kankakee River, Kankakee County. Plants are herbaceous and perennial with a racemose inflorescence consisting of showy, slightly fragrant flowers ranging in color from almost white to lavender. Leaves are alternate and shallowly palmately lobed and stems and leaves are coarsely pubescent.

"Evolution Of Afrotropical Freshwater Crab Lineages Obscured By Morphological Convergence" , Savel R. Daniels, Neil Cumberlidge, Marcos Pérez-Losada, Saskia Ae Marijnissen, Keith A. Crandall

Journal Articles

No abstract provided.

Non-Competition Agreements And Research Productivity In The Biotechnology Industry, Porcher L. Taylor Iii, Joseph E. Coombs

School of Professional and Continuing Studies Faculty Publications

This paper examines the impact of the state-level legal structure, namely the legal support for non-competition agreements, on research productivity. Specifically, we study how California’s unique lack of non-competition agreement laws influences product develop when controlling for local munificence and firm-level technological capability. Our results indicate that California’s unique legal structure is negatively associated with research productivity as measured by the number of products in development at the time a biotechnology firm goes public. Further, firm size moderates this relationship such that the effect is stronger for smaller biotechnology firms.

Of Fish And People: Managerial Ecology In Newfoundland And Labrador Cod Fisheries, Dean Louis Yelwa Bavington

Theses and Dissertations (Comprehensive)

This dissertation aims to understand the history of, and possible alternatives to, managerial responses to socio-ecological issues by examining one of the largest natural resource management failures of the twentieth century—the collapse of the Northern cod fisheries off Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. In 1992, the Northern cod fishery off Newfoundland and Labrador (the world's largest ground fishery) was shut down. The Northern cod had been reduced to 1% of their historic spawning biomass and cod fishing as a way of life had come to an end after a 500 year history. The dissertation develops and applies a critical theory of …

The Honey Creek Member: A New Holocene Alluvial Stratigraphic Unit In The Midwest, Jeremy S. Dillon, Rolfe D. Mandel

Journal of the Iowa Academy of Science: JIAS

This paper describes the type locality and type section for the Honey Creek Member, a stratigraphic unit first recognized in the Honey Creek drainage in southeastern Nebraska. The alluvial chronology for Honey Creek basin is similar to the regional chronology of streams in the Midwest, and all of the formal members of the DeForest Formation occur in the basin. However, the lithology of one unit, the Honey Creek Member, does not correlate with any of the formally recognized members of the DeForest Formation. The Honey Creek Member is composed of grayish brown silt loam overbank facies coarsening downward to a …

Spatial Autocorrelation Of Deer-Vehicle Accidents In Vigo County, J. Scott Horn

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Deer-vehicle accidents (DV As) are a problem in many areas. They cause millions of dollars in property damage, personal injury, and loss of life each year. This thesis examines whether DVAs in Vigo County, Indiana during the year 2000 were spatially autocorrelated; and whether DV As selected by deer habitat were spatially autocorrelated. Specifically using Moran's I to test for spatial autocorrelation this study determined if and to what degree spatial autocorrelation existed among these DVAs. A Moran's I value of .0023 shows that the accidents occurred randomly. These DV A data were then used to plot a map which …

Biomass Estimation Using Statistical And Neural Network Analysis Of Aster Data, Vijay O. Lulla

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

This study assessed the performance of different biomass estimation methods using Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) lll data in a temperate forest. Multiple linear regression statistics of spectral band data and derived indices with biomass values were compared with advanced neural network models created with spectral band data and indices to model biomass values. Biomass for the study area was estimated using both of these methods and the results were discussed. The data were analyzed using multivariate statistical analysis. Correlation analysis and regression analysis were employed to understand the relationship of biomass to the spectral data and …

Foraminiferal Faunas Of The Southern California Bight: A Temporal And Spatial Comparison Of Assemblages In The >150, 63-150, And >63 Μm Fractions, Amanda S. Shepard

All-Inclusive List of Electronic Theses and Dissertations

Analyses ofliving (Rose Bengal stained) deep-sea benthic foraminifera collected on the Southern California margin reveal temporal and spatial changes in foraminiferal assemblages related to changes in sea-surface productivity. Samples were collected from two sites in May, August, and October 1996. Results show that foraminiferal microhabitats are not static at these sites, and some species ( e.g., Bolivina spissa and Uvigerina peregrina) responded to the change in seasons with a change in their vertical distribution profiles, which is indicative of microhabitat preferences. Species such as Buliminella tenuata changed sediment depth in different stages of their life cycles, which has implications for …

Extended Visions, November/December 2005

Extended Visions Newsletter (ARDC)

Contents:
From Crops to Fiber Optics - What We’re Up To!
ARDC FEATURE UNIT - CALMIT
About the People
Remote Quantification of Crop Health
Ag Awareness Festival Adds New Info
Back by Popular Demand...Sue Martin to Provide Marketing Advice at Dec. 9 Soy Expo
Calendar of Events
Crop Management in the Summer and in the Winter
Director's Comments
Crops to Fiber Optics - What We’re Up To!
Duck Creek Watershed Workshop Focuses on Fewer Inputs and Increased Income
Holstein Provides Nutrition Education for Those With Limited Resources
Levis Receives National Recognition
Mead Magnet School Update
Plant Science Students Visit the …

The Effect Of Nitrogen Fertilizer Application To Maize And Sorghum On The Bionomics Of Chilo Partellus (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) And The Performance Of Its Larval Parasitoid Cotesia Flavipes (Hymenoptera: Braconidae), N. Jiang, F. Schulthess

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Laboratory and field trials were conducted to evaluate the effect of plant species (maize, sorghum), plant age (young, middle, old) and four different nitrogen fertilization levels (N0-N3) on the bionomics of the invasive crambid Chilo partellus and the performance of its braconid larval parasitoid Cotesia flavipes. Plant N varied significantly between N0 and N1-N3, but the differences among the latter were not significant. Intrinsic rates of increase and net-reproductive rates of C. partellus followed the same trends: they were lowest with N0 and similar among the other treatments. On maize only, mortality of C. partellus and parasitism by C. flavipes …

Climatic Unpredictability And Parasitism Of Caterpillars: Implications Of Global Warming, John Stireman, Lee Dyer, D. Janzen, M. Singer, J. Lill, R. Marquis, R. Ricklefs, G. Gentry, W. Hallwachs, P. Coley, J. Barone, H. Greeney, H. Connahs, P. Barbosa, H. Morais, I. Diniz

Biology Department Faculty Works

Insect outbreaks are expected to increase in frequency and intensity with projected changes in global climate through direct effects of climate change on insect populations and through disruption of community interactions. Although there is much concern about mean changes in global climate, the impact of climatic variability itself on species interactions has been little explored. Here, we compare caterpillar–parasitoid interactions across a broad gradient of climatic variability and find that the combined data in 15 geographically dispersed databases show a decrease in levels of parasitism as climatic variability increases. The dominant contribution to this pattern by relatively specialized parasitoid wasps …

Ontoqa: Metric-Based Ontology Quality Analysis, Samir Tartir, I. Budak Arpinar, Michael Moore, Amit P. Sheth, Boanerges Aleman-Meza

Kno.e.sis Publications

As the Semantic Web gains importance for sharing knowledge on the Internet this has lead to the development and publishing of many ontologies in different domains. When trying to reuse existing ontologies into their applications, users are faced with the problem of determining if an ontology is suitable for their needs. In this paper, we introduce OntoQA, an approach that analyzes ontology schemas and their populations (i.e. knowledgebases) and describes them through a well defined set of metrics. These metrics can highlight key characteristics of an ontology schema as well as its population and enable users to make an informed …

The Tree-Thinking Challenge, David A. Baum, Stacey Dewitt Smith, Samuel S.S. Donovan

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

The preferred interpretation of a phylogenetic tree is as a depiction of lines of descent. That is, trees communicate the evolutionary relationships among elements, such as genes or species, that connect a sample of branch tips. Under this interpretation, the nodes (branching points) on a tree are taken to correspond to actual biological entities that existed in the past: ancestral populations or ancestral genes. However, tree diagrams are also used in many nonevolutionary contexts, which can cause confusion. For example, trees can depict the clustering of genes on the basis of their expression profiles from microarrays, or the clustering of …

Differential Immersion Survival By Populations Of Cicindela Hirticollis (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae, Mathew Louis Brust, William Wyatt Hoback, Kerri Farnsworth Skinner, Charles Barry Kinsley

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

In the past 20 yr, populations of Cicindela hirticollis Say (Coleoptera: Cicindelidae) that inhabit river shorelines have declined dramatically. These habitats have routinely flooded in winter and spring historically, but they have been altered by damming and controlled water releases for irrigation and power generation. We tested the ability of C. hirticollis larvae from two river and one bayshore population to survive immersion in severely hypoxic water. This is the first report of population-level differences among insects in immersion survival and likely relates to exposure to different flooding regimes. The larvae from the Chesapeake Bay population survived ≈3 d of …

Development Of Biological Reference Conditions Of Wadeable Streams In The Major Ecoregions And Subecoregions Of Georgia, Duncan L. Hughes

Theses and Dissertations

One bioassessment tool available to resource managers to indicate NPS impairment of wadeable streams and rivers are multi-metric invertebrate indices. Such indices are assembled from metrics in broad categories that represent different aspects of community structure and function (e.g. richness, composition, tolerance/intolerance, feeding group, and habit). Indices must incorporate suites of metrics that are ecologically relevant, quantifiable, non-redundant, and that best individually discriminate between reference sites and impaired sites. More than 240 wadeable streams in Georgia were sampled during the September thru February index period using RBP protocols during three successive sample seasons (1999-2003). Ecoregional reference (minimally impaired) sites, as …

Potential Of Modis Evi And Surface Temperature For Directly Estimating Per-Pixel Ecosystem C Fluxes, Abdullah Rahman, Daniel A. Sims, Vicente D. Cordova, Bassil Z. El-Masri

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

We tested the potential of estimating per-pixel gross primary production (GPP) directly from the MODIS enhanced vegetation index (EVI) and respiration directly from MODIS surface temperature (MOD11). Carbon flux data were obtained from 10 eddy covariance tower sites representing a wide range of North American vegetations. The correlation between across-site tower GPP and EVI was comparable (r = 0.77) to that between tower GPP and MOD17-GPP (r = 0.73), suggesting that EVI could be used to provide reasonably accurate direct estimates of GPP on a truly per-pixel basis. There was also a strong relationship (r2 = 0.67) between respiration and …

Remotely Sensed Data To Map Forest Age Class By Cover Type In East Texas, Daniel Unger, I-Kuai Hung, Jeffrey M. Williams, James Kroll, Dean W. Coble, Jason Grogan

Faculty Publications

• Remote sensing in conjunction with ground truthing, can accurately quantify forest composition and age distributions in East Texas.
• Method uses standardized and readily available data available to the general public.
• Method was shown to be effective in terms of time and cost.

American Society Of Parasitologists Newsletter, V. 27, No. 3, Autumn 2005, Scott Lyell Gardner

American Society of Parasitologists: Newsletter

An issue of the American Society of Parasitologists' quarterly newsletter, also called the Journal of Parasitology Newsletter.

Vulnerability Of Northern Prairie Wetlands To Climate Change, Carter W. Johnson, B. V. Millett, T. Gilmanov, G. R. Guntenspergen, David E. Naugle

Wildlife Biology Faculty Publications

The prairie pothole region (PPR) lies in the heart of North America and contains millions of glacially formed, depressional wetlands embedded in a landscape matrix of natural grassland and agriculture. These wetlands provide valuable ecosystem services and produce 50% to 80% of the continent's ducks. We explored the broad spatial and temporal patterns across the PPR between climate and wetland water levels and vegetation by applying a wetland simulation model (WETSIM) to 18 stations with 95-year weather records. Simulations suggest that the most productive habitat for breeding waterfowl would shift under a drier climate from the center of the PPR …

Resistant Turfgrasses For Improved Chinch Bug Management, Tiffany Heng-Moss, Frederick P. Baxendale, Robert C. Shearman, Thomas E. Eickhoff

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Researchers at the University of Nebraska evaluated selected cool- and warm-season turfgrasses for resistance to chinch bugs in the Blissus complex, and documented the presence of multiple chinch bug resistance in these turfgrasses.

Greenhouse and field screening studies were initiated to search for cool- and warm-season turfgrasses with resistance to chinch bugs in the Blissus complex. Several warmseason turfgrasses (buffalograss, zoysiagrass, and bermudagrass) with resistance to the western chinch bug have been identified.

Studies are currently underway to investigate the biochemical and physiological mechanisms underlying resistant turfgrasses. This information is fundamentally important for formulating plant breeding strategies, and subsequently developing …

Relationships Of Intercropped Maize, Stem Borer Damage To Maize Yield And Land-Use Efficiency In The Humid Forest Of Cameroon, A. Chabi-Olaye, C. Nolte, F. Schulthess, C. Borgemeister

All Peer-Reviewed Publications

Stem borers are the most important maize pests in the humid forest zone of Cameroon. Field trials were conducted in the long and short rainy seasons of 2002 and 2003 to assess the level of damage and yield reductions caused by stem borers in monocropped maize and in maize intercropped with non-host plants such as cassava, cowpea and soybean. The intercrops were planted in two spatial arrangements, i.e. alternating hills or alternating rows. All intercrops and the maize monocrop were grown with and without insecticide treatment for assessment of maize yield loss due to borer attacks. The land-use efficiency of …

First Records Of Acrotaphus Fuscipennis (Cresson) And Of A. Tibialis (Cameron) From The United States (Hymenoptera: Ichneumonidae), Julieta Brambila, Charles C. Porter

Insecta Mundi

Abstract:
Acrotaphus fuscipennis (Cresson), distinctive because of its black wings and bright red body, is recorded for the first time from the United States. It was reared from araneid spiders collected in Florida, which constitutes the first host record for this species. Acrotaphus tibialis (Cameron), collected in Texas, is also recorded for the first time in the United States. New U.S. localities are given for A. wiltii (Cresson). A key is provided for the identification of the three species of Acrotaphus in United States. The adults of all three species and the cocoon of Acrotaphus fuscipennis are illustrated.

Resumen:
Acrotaphus …

Implications Of Spatial Autocorrelation And Dispersal For The Modeling Of Species Distributions, Volker Bahn

Biological Sciences Faculty Publications

Modeling the geographical distributions of wildlife species is important for ecology and conservation biology. Spatial autocorrelation in species distributions poses a problem for distribution modeling because it invalidates the assumption of independence among sample locations. I explored the prevalence and causes of spatial autocorrelation in data from the Breeding Bird Survey, covering the conterminous United States, using Regression Trees, Conditional Autoregressive Regressions (CAR), and the partitioning of variance. I also constructed a simulation model to investigate dispersal as a process contributing to spatial autocorrelation, and attempted to verify the connection between dispersal and spatial autocorrelation in species’ distributions in empirical …

Street Trees In The Urban Forest Canopy: Portland, Oregon, Joseph Poracsky, David Banis

Geography Faculty Publications and Presentations

Attempts to identify the contribution of street trees to the overall urban forest of a city have been rare and lack consensus on how to measure that contribution – percentage of trees, percentage of canopy cover, or percentage of leaf area. The actual numeric values presented in the literature also vary over a broad range and often are based on estimates, extrapolations from aggregated data, or simply stated with no empirical data referenced. This study was undertaken to evaluate the contribution of street trees to canopy in Portland, Oregon. The study involved both visual and digital analysis of multi-band aerial …

Bats Of Jamaica, Hugh H. Genoways, John W. Bickham, Robert J. Baker, Carleton J. Phillips

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The modern history of Jamaica is entwined with European exploration of the New World beginning with the landing of Columbus at Discovery Bay on May 4, 1494, during his second voyage to the Americas. Since that time the word Jamaica has conjured thoughts of tropical beaches, trade winds, pleasant tropical nights, Spaniards, British navy, Empire, sugar, rum, plantations, slavery, revolt, maroons, pirates, Port Royal, disasters, hurricanes, and in more recent years independence, tourism, Reggae, and welcoming and happy residents. Our knowledge of Jamaican natural history begins with Browne (1789). He and other early naturalists displayed a broad interest in plants …

Fire-Induced Albedo Change And Its Radative Forcing At The Surface In Northern Austrailia, Y. Jin, David P. Roy

GSCE Faculty Publications

This paper investigates the impact of fire on surface albedo and the associated radiative forcing over 56% of continental Australia encompassing the fire-prone northern tropical savanna. Fire-affected areas and albedos are derived for the 2003 fire season using daily Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) surface reflectance data. Near-infrared and total shortwave albedos are observed to generally decrease after fire occurrence. Regionally, the total shortwave albedo drops by an average of 0.024, with increasing reductions as the dry season progresses and larger reductions in grasslands than woody savannas. These fire-induced albedo changes exert a positive forcing at the surface that increases …

Agrohort: Agronomy And Horticulture Growing People First 2005

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Annual Newsletters

CONTENTS

Alumni news . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25

Articles:

Agronomy and horticulture highlights . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5

Barta brothers . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . …

Evidence-Based Research In Complementary And Alternative Medicine I: History, Francesco Chiappelli, Paolo Prolo, Olivia S. Cajulis

Senior Honors Projects

Contemporary Western medicine has witnessed a fragmentation of our conceptualization of the medical endeavor into ‘traditional medicine’ and ‘non-traditional medicine’. The former is meant to refer to the Western medical tradition, the latter encompasses both ‘complementary’ and ‘alternative’ medical practices. Complementary medicine complements conventional medical treatments, and alternative modes of medical interventions are meant to replace traditional Western medicine. Evidence-based research must be directed at establishing the best available evidence in complementary and alternative medicine. This paper is the first of a set of four ‘lectures’ that reviews the process of evidence-based research, and discusses its implications and applications for …

Interannual Variation Of Stratification In Lower Chesapeake Bay, Christopher S. Katzenmiller

OES Theses and Dissertations

Stratification in the water column can prove to be an important indicator to the state of the water column and ecosystem. The focus of this research is to evaluate trends in stratification in the Lower Chesapeake Bay. Detailed analysis was performed on a 14 year data set to study interannual variation in the region of study. Potential energy anomaly was used to quantify stratification. Potential energy anomaly is the amount of energy required to mix a water column. It is determined from the vertical density structure of density. Potential energy anomaly is the departure of potential energy from climate conditions. …