Digital Commons Network^™

Physical Activity Barriers And Assets In Rural Appalachian Kentucky: A Mixed-Methods Study, Natalie Jones, Deirdre Dlugonski, Rachel Gillespie, Emily M. Dewitt, Joann Lianekhammy, Stacey A. Slone, Kathryn M. Cardarelli

Sports Medicine Research Institute Faculty Publications

Obesity is an increasing public health concern in the U.S. and a contributor to chronic illness, with trends revealing a rise in adult obesity and chronic disease rates among the most vulnerable and disadvantaged populations, including those in rural communities. A mixed-methods approach was used to examine perspectives on perceived physical activity barriers, resources, and level of community support. Researchers utilized the socioecological model to examine the multiple domains that support physical activity in rural Appalachia. The present study focuses on baseline data, including a cohort survey to assess physical activity, health status, and barriers to physical activity, and five …

Health Disparity And Covid-19—A Retrospective Analysis, Sanjay Sarkar, Archie Taylor, Pratik Dutta, Bidisha Sengupta, Debarshi Roy

Faculty Publications

Background and Aims

According to the World Health Organization (WHO), more than 75.7 million confirmed cases of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), a global pandemic caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), have been reported so far. Researchers are working relentlessly to find effective solutions to this catastrophe, using genomic sequence-based investigation, immunological analysis, and more. The role of health disparity has also emerged as an intriguing factor that made a huge impact on the lives of people.

Methods

We analyzed various factors that triggered the health disparity in the United States of America along with the rate of …

Modeling Forage Yield Losses For Crop Insurance In Eastern Canada, I. Duchesne‐Ortiz, Gilles Bélanger, L. Martel, Guy Allard

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Evaluating Irrigation Performance And Water Productivity Using Eeflux Et And Ndvi, Usha Poudel, Haroon Stephen, Sajjad Ahmad

Civil and Environmental Engineering and Construction Faculty Research

Southern California’s Imperial Valley (IV) faces serious water management concerns due to its semi-arid environment, water-intensive crops and limited water supply. Accurate and reliable irrigation system performance and water productivity information is required in order to assess and improve the current water management strategies. This study evaluates the spatially distributed irrigation equity, adequacy and crop water productivity (CWP) for two water-intensive crops, alfalfa and sugar beet, using remotely sensed data and a geographical information system for the 2018/2019 crop growing season. The actual crop evapotranspiration (ETa) was mapped in Google Earth Engine Evapotranspiration Flux, using the linear interpolation method in …

Protistan Grazing Impacts Microbial Communities And Carbon Cycling At Deep-Sea Hydrothermal Vents, Sarah K. Hu, Erica L. Herrera, Amy R. Smith, Maria G. Pachiadaki, Virginia P. Edgcomb, Sean P. Sylva, Eric W. Chan, Jeffrey S. Seewald, Christopher R. German, Julie A. Huber

School of Earth, Environmental, & Marine Sciences Faculty Publications

Microbial eukaryotes (or protists) in marine ecosystems are a link between primary producers and all higher trophic levels, and the rate at which heterotrophic protistan grazers consume microbial prey is a key mechanism for carbon transport and recycling in microbial food webs. At deep-sea hydrothermal vents, chemosynthetic bacteria and archaea form the base of a food web that functions in the absence of sunlight, but the role of protistan grazers in these highly productive ecosystems is largely unexplored. Here, we pair grazing experiments with a molecular survey to quantify protistan grazing and to characterize the composition of vent-associated protists in …

Taming A 'Wicked' Policy Problem: A Policy Overview Of Property Rights And Governance Of Africa's Rangelands, Esther Mwangi

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Effect Of Forage Management Strategies And Land Use Change On Nitrogen Budget And Soil Health Parameters In Pasture Systems, Yili Meng

LSU Doctoral Dissertations

Pastures produce hay for livestock, and they conserve soil, water, and air resources. However, high nitrogen (N) fertilizer demands in pasture production have significant implication on greenhouse gas emission and environmental pollution. Appropriate forage management strategies can reduce environmental N loss and improve soil health, to enhance the long-term pasture productivity. Therefore, this study was carried out to investigate the effects of management strategies on N budgets and soil health parameters in subtropical pastures. Both field and laboratory experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of N stabilizers including urease inhibitor and nitrification inhibitor on pasture yield, greenhouse gas emission, …

Ganglioside Alters Phospholipase Trafficking, Inhibits Nf-Κb Assembly, And Protects Tight Junction Integrity, John J. Miklavcic, Qun Li, Jordan Skolnick, Alan B. R. Thomson, Vera C. Mazurak, Michael Tom Clandinin

Food Science Faculty Articles and Research

Background and Aims: Dietary gangliosides are present in human milk and consumed in low amounts from organ meats. Clinical and animal studies indicate that dietary gangliosides attenuate signaling processes that are a hallmark of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Gangliosides decrease pro-inflammatory markers, improve intestinal permeability, and reduce symptoms characteristic in patients with IBD. The objective of this study was to examine mechanisms by which dietary gangliosides exert beneficial effects on intestinal health.

Methods: Studies were conducted in vitro using CaCo-2 intestinal epithelial cells. Gangliosides were extracted from milk powder and incubated with differentiated CaCo-2 cells after exposure to pro-inflammatory stimuli. …

Life Cycle Assessment Of Packaging Systems For Enteral Nutrition Products: Multilayer Pouch And High-Density Polyethylene Bottle, Martina Krueger, Benedikt Kauertz, Claudia Mayer

Journal of Applied Packaging Research

Environmental performance of alternative packaging options for a given product application increasingly comes into awareness, both at the end consumer level as well as in the field of business-to-business communication. The purpose of the study presented here is to examine the environmental performance of a multilayer pouch for packing of enteral nutrition products. To achieve this, a life cycle assessment has been conducted. As an attributional full cradle-to-grave life cycle assessment it compares environmental impacts of a comparable lighter multilayer pouch vs. two different comparable heavier high-density polyethylene bottles (covering the weight range of high-density polyethylene bottles on global markets …

Himalayan Rangelands Ecology And Animal Production Influenced By Changing Social And Economic Culture In Northern Areas Of Pakistan, Syed Hassan Raza

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

A Forage Book Of International Impact, Garry D. Lacefield, Donald M. Ball, Carl S. Hoveland, Donald L. Armstrong

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Electrochemical Reduction Of Hexavalent Chromium In Acetonitrile Using Glassy Carbon Electrodes, Temitope Jegede

LSU Master's Theses

Hexavalent chromium Cr(VI), a form of chromium mainly generated through industrial processes, has attracted great research interests due to its severe toxicity to biological systems. A common way to remove hexavalent chromium from industrial wastes is through reduction to the non-toxic trivalent state. To this end, methods such as chemical reduction, chemical precipitation and coagulation have been used. However, these methods are limited by poor removal efficiency, formation of secondary pollutants (sludge), and are mostly applicable to aqueous solutions. Recently, electrochemical methods have been investigated for reducing hexavalent chromium, but there is a lack of data on the reduction of …

Effects Of Treatments On Fermentation Quality And Nutrition Ingredient Of Small Reed, Yusup Yusanjan, Ainiwaer Aishan, Guangwei Zhao

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Experiences And Coping Strategies During The Covid-19 Pandemic Among Fishers And Farmers In The Island Province Of Guimaras, Philippines, Gay Margarett A. Gange, Louie Marie T. Eluriaga, Alice Joan G. Ferrer

Journal of Economics, Management and Agricultural Development

This study describes the experiences and coping strategies related with the COVID-19 threat and the community quarantine policy by the fishers and farmers in the island province of Guimaras. Both food producers faced marketrelated problems such as low demand, low prices of catch and produce, and logistical problems. While the in-kind support (e.g., food provisions) received and adaptive measures (e.g., continued with fishing or adjusted harvest schedule; use of social media or delivery services in marketing) allowed them to get by during the pandemic, there is a need to develop more resilient farming and fishing households. Short-term support can be …

Determining The Causal Link Of Honey Bee Gut Microbial Composition On Behavioral Maturation, Thi Lan Anh Nguyen, Cassondra L. Vernier, Gene E. Robinson

PRECS student projects

Emerging studies have supported the association between gut microbiome and host behaviors. However, it is unclear whether changes in the gut microbiome cause changes in host behaviors or vice versa. The European honey bee, Apis mellifera, is an excellent animal model for identifying the causal link between microbiome and behavioral changes over the lifetime of the host as the honey bee gut contains a simple microbiome composed of only nine bacterial taxa clusters. In honey bees, division of labor occurs through behavioral maturation where age determines what task a bee does. For example, older bees forage while younger bees perform …

Stem Afterschool Club - Lava Lamps, Dylan Hiser

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

Afterschool Club that builds upon what students already know about science with fun and interactive experiments.

Sometimes, When It Rains It Pours: How Does Flooding Alter Plant-Herbivore Relationships?, Lauren R. Urie, Erinn Dady, Esther N. Ngumbi

PRECS student projects

Flooding, an under-studied abiotic stressor, creates hostile soil conditions, including hypoxia, which hinder the growth and development of plants. Plants respond to abiotic and biotic stressors. A common response is the production of volatile organic compounds (VOCs), which modulate stress responses and mediate plant and insect interactions. Flooding causes significant losses in crops of agricultural and economic importance including tomato. Understanding how flooding impacts plant growth, plant chemistry, caterpillar performance and chemical mediated plant-herbivore interactions will create fundamental knowledge to an emerging challenge brought about by climate change and inform pest management decisions post flooding events. This study investigated how …

Consumer Perceptions Of Plastic-Free Food Packaging, Cara Conner

Human Nutrition and Hospitality Management Undergraduate Honors Theses

This study surveyed consumers in Fayetteville, Arkansas to assess their perceptions of plastic-free food packaging. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, surveys were administered via email to Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences undergraduate students and faculty at the University of Arkansas. Eleven questions were asked in the survey. Numerical values were assigned to each answer option in order to interpret the results. The factors impacting consumer decisions to purchase foods packaged with or without plastic were ranked from greatest to least: sanitation/safety, availability where shopping, cost, shelf-life, and convenience. Food packaging materials were ranked from most to …

Consulting Place As Stakeholder: Accessing The Input Of Ecological Community, Hunter Adkisson

Landscape Architecture Undergraduate Honors Theses

This is a project about how landscape architects approach the landscape in their design process. Indigenous worldviews hold that the world is living and animate in its own right. When we consider stakeholder engagement in this light, the need arises to extend the definition of stakeholders to include the ecological communities of place – the flora, fauna, soils, and other non-human elements of place. To gather that input, I experimented with techniques to access a greater awareness of ecological community at two sites with different levels of urbanity and types of land management practices. This experimental approach was surprisingly successful …

Knowledge Extraction And Inference Based On Visual Understanding Of Cooking Contents, Ahmad Babaeian Babaeian Jelodar

USF Tampa Graduate Theses and Dissertations

In this dissertation, we discuss our work on analyzing cooking content for the ultimate goal ofautomatic robotic manipulation. For a robot to perform a cooking task, it will need to both have an understanding of the scene and utilize prior knowledge. We will explore two main sub-problems: knowledge extraction and inference, and visual understanding of the scene in this dissertation. Visual understanding of a scene, requires algorithms that can visually infer information from a single image or video. Many algorithms in the area of image classification, object detection, or activity recognition can be used in this area. Although great advances …

Snowier Winters Extend Autumn Availability Of High-Quality Forage For Caribou In Arctic Alaska, J. C, Richert, A. J. Leffler, D. E. Spalinger, J. M. Walker

Natural Resource Management Faculty Publications

Caribou (Rangifer tarandus) rely on the short Arctic growing season to restore body condition, support the demands of lactation, and prepare for the long arctic winter, making them susceptible to even small changes in forage availability or quality. Body condition in the summer and autumn is linked to winter survival rates and fecundity in cows, critical factors in the productivity of caribou populations. Climate change predictions of warmer and wetter northern winters suggest increased snowfall over Alaska’s North Slope, which has recently been verified between 1995 and 2017. However, a comprehensive analysis of how deeper snow will affect caribou forage …

Economically Optimal Nitrogen Side-Dressing Based On Vegetation Indices From Satellite Images Through On-Farm Experiments, Qianqian Du

Department of Agricultural Economics: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Optimal N fertilizer rates for corn (Zea mays L.) vary substantially within and among fields, and by corn growth stages. Improving N side-dressing management can improve fertilizer use efficiency, farmers’ profitability, and the sustainability of crop production. The objective of this study is to introduce a framework along with a methodology that can find the site-specific economically optimal N rates (EONRs) within one field for a particular growing season. An on-farm experiment was conducted in the 2019 corn growing season. A base N rate was applied uniformly on the field. NDRE images from the Sentinel-2 satellite were observed during …

Risks Of Introduction And Economic Consequences Associated With African Swine Fever, Classical Swine Fever And Foot-And-Mouth Disease: A Review Of The Literature, Vienna Brown, Ryan S. Miller, Sophie C. Mckee, Karina H. Ernst, Nicole M. Didero, Rachel M. Maison, Meredith J. Grady, Stephanie A. Shwiff

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

African swine fever (ASF), classical swine fever (CSF) and foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) are considered to be three of the most detrimental animal diseases and are currently foreign to the U.S. Emerging and re-emerging pathogens can have tremendous impacts in terms of livestock morbidity and mortality events, production losses, forced trade restrictions, and costs associated with treatment and control. The United States is the world's top producer of beef for domestic and export use and the world's third-largest producer and consumer of pork and pork products; it has also recently been either the world's largest or second largest exporter of pork …

Economic Losses Of Catfish To Avian Predation: A Case Report, Ganesh Kumar, Shraddha Hegde, David Wise, Charles Mischke, Brian Dorr

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Avian predation in catfish aquaculture has been a persistent issue throughout the history of the industry, and as production has expanded predation from piscivorous birds has intensified. Catfish ponds in the Mississippi River delta (in the Mississippi migratory flyway) provide a constant and readily accessible supply of forage for birds. Intensive foraging by fish-eating birds has led to a specific regulatory policy and numerous on-farm and regional management efforts. However, in 2016, legal challenges lead to recision of some federal policies and uncertainty as to allowable management, resulting in limitations on bird depredation. Estimating the extent of fish losses to …

Comparing Dietary Score Associations With Lipoprotein Particle Subclass Profiles: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of A Middle-To Older-Aged Population, Seán R. Millar, Pilar Navarro, Janas M. Harrington, Nitin Shivappa Mbbs, Mph, Ph.D., James Hébert Scd, Ivan J. Perry, Catherine M. Phillips

Faculty Publications

Background and objectives: Lipoprotein particle concentrations and size are associated with increased risk for atherosclerosis and premature cardiovascular disease. Studies also suggest that certain dietary behaviours may be cardioprotective. Limited comparative data regarding any dietary score/index-lipoprotein particle subclass associations exist. Thus, our objective was to assess relationships between the Dietary Approaches to Stop Hypertension (DASH), Health Eating Index-2015 (HEI-2015), Mediterranean Diet (MD) and Energy-adjusted Dietary Inflammatory Index (E-DII™) scores and plasma lipids and lipoprotein profiles to test the hypothesis that healthier diet (better quality and more anti-inflammatory) would be associated with a more favourable lipoprotein profile.

Materials and methods: This …

Application Of Gis And Multi-Criteria Statistical Techniques In Assessing Water Quality In The Coastal Province Of Vietnamese Mekong Delta, Giao Thanh Nguyen, Thi Hong Nhien Huynh

Applied Environmental Research

The study was conducted to evaluate the quality and spatial distribution of surface water quality in Soc Trang, a coastal province using Geographic information system (GIS) and multivariate statistical analysis. Water monitoring data was collected from 19 sampling locations with 19 parameters were analyzed from February 2019 to August 2020. The results indicated that water quality was contaminated with organic matters, nutrients, coliforms and salinity. Water quality index (WQI=22–73) indicated that water quality was from poor to medium level. Cluster analysis (CA) classified 19 monitoring sites into 7 groups and 19 months into 3 seasons including rainy season, rainy season-early …

Assessing Impacts Of Winter-Hay Feeding On Soil And Forage Nutrient Dynamics In A Rotationally-Grazed Pasture System In Arkansas, Lawrence Gordon Berry Iv

Graduate Theses and Dissertations

More than 38 % of United States’ rural land area was used for grazing (i.e., pastureland or rangeland) ruminant animals in 2017, constituting the largest private land use group. The expansive nature of these lands means that grazing and pasture management decisions have potential to impact water quality as well as profit margins. As a result, beef producers are under increased pressure from economic and environmental standpoints to limit application of nutrients beyond those required to grow the forage needed for animal consumption. At the same time, a large amount of nutrients is recycled back to pasture systems directly from …

Study On Drying Characteristic And Hay Quality Of Alfalfa In Different Hay Making Methods, Shiming Xue, Guilian Shan

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Chemical Composition And Seasonal Yield Of Koeleria Cristata In West Azarbaijan Grasslands Of Iran, Javad Torkan, I. Bernosi

IGC Proceedings (1977-2023)

No abstract provided.

Physical And Chemical Properties Of Soil, Water And Air Around Ukawu Pb-Zn Mine, Southeastern Nigeria, Nwachukwu Arthur Nwachukwu, Sikakwe Gregory Udie, Eluwa Ndidiamaka Nchedo, Uwa Clementina Ukamaka, Oluwatoyin Oluwatosin Olaosebikan

Makara Journal of Science

In this study, analysis of water, and soil samples, air quality, and noise levels in Ukawu Pb-Zn mine were examined. The pH of the water samples, at 6.7, exceeded permissible levels for potable water established by the National Environmental Standard Regulatory Agency (NESREA), European Union, and World Health Organization (i.e., 7.0-8.5). The soil pH was 5.2, which indicates acidity due to acid mine drainage. Low soil pH is evidence of acid mine drainage. All cations detected in water and soil were below standard limits considered harmful by the NESREA. Measurements of precursor gases, such as O₃, NO_{2 …}