Digital Commons Network^™

Using Complex Behavior To Understand Brain Mechanisms In Health And Disease, Cassandra D. Gipson, Paul L. Soto, Erin S. Calipari, Donna M. Platt, John D. Salamone, Rick A. Bevins

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

At this point in the history of the science of behavior, a focus on neuroscience-based outcomes has become dominant in neuropsychiatric fields at the preclinical and clinical levels of analysis. The notion that behavior is caused by brain function, and that changing brain function can alter behavior, has fueled this push to understand these neurobiological mechanisms. Within this conceptual framework and the funding to incentivize its adoption, the neuroscience field grew rapidly with the goal to understand the relation between the brain and behavior. As such, a reductionist perspective emerged whereby neural manipulations of increasing sophistication became required for assessing …

Natural Environment: Protocol To Recover Pollen Grains On Bodies, Karl J. Reinhard, A. Barbosa

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Biochar: Properties And Potential Benefits For Agricultural Soil In Rwanda, Andromede Uwase

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Physical and chemical soil degradation is becoming a major challenge for agricultural productivity in Rwanda, which is the most important part of the country’s economy. The wide spreading soil degradation in Rwanda is mainly a result of naturally poor soils coupled with unsustainable soil management leading to, for example, accelerated soil erosion, acidification, nutrient loss, compaction, and to decreasing yields. Biochar, as an end product of pyrolysis of biomass in the absence of oxygen, has been proposed as a soil amendment in remediation strategies because of its positive effects on soil productivity relevant parameters such as soil pH, structure, nutrient …

Genomic Analysis Of Acetoanaerobium Sp. Vlb-1, An Anaerobic Bacterium Isolated From Nebraska's Eastern Saline Wetlands, Claire Martin

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Through the analysis of genetic code, the genomic and physiological characteristics of an environmental anaerobic bacterial isolate, Acetoanaerobium sp. strain VLB-1, can be determined and significant pathways can be identified in its significance to the environment. This particular organism was isolated from the Eastern Saline Wetlands in Lincoln, NE. With this isolate, an investigation into elemental and amino acid cycling via the Stickland reaction and the Wood-Ljungdahl pathway was conducted to determine possible metabolic products. The Stickland reaction is a relatively newly discovered pathway, observed in the genus Clostridium. A. sticklandii is the main model for this method of …

North 14th Street Corridor Improvements Project, Ashley Nguyen, Samantha Corey, Maricela Paramo Reyes, Pooja Rajeev

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The following project report was a study of the North 14^th Street corridor ranging from Adams Street to Virginia Street conducted by University of Nebraska-Lincoln students for a senior design capstone project. Main focuses of the project were the intersection of Adams and 14^th Street and the 14^th Street bridges over Cornhusker Highway and Oak Creek. Study of this area included work in transportation, traffic, structural, geotechnical, water resources, and environmental engineering. However, this report done by students should not take the place of work done by licensed professional engineers.

This project was done in collaboration with …

Quality Parameters Of Wet And Dry Aged Beef Loins From Cattle Fed High Doses Of Vitamin E, David M. Velazco, Joe A. Sonderman, Nicolas J. Herrera, Chris Calkins

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

The objective of this experiment was to determine if dietary supplementation of high doses of vitamin E (alpha-tocopherol; 2,200 IU per day for 100 days) can impact quality attributes of wet and dry-aged beef strip loins. Steaks from beef cattle supplemented with high doses of vitamin E exhibited less lipid oxidation after wet or dry aging, took longer time to discolor during retail display, and sustained redder color for a longer period under retail display conditions compared to controls. Free amino acids related to positive beef flavor attributes were higher for dry-aged loins compared to traditional wet aged samples loins. …

Beef Quality And Oxidative Stability From Cattle Fed High Levels Of Vitamin E, Nicolas J. Herrera, Joe A. Sonderman, David M. Velazco, Chris Calkins

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Meat color is a major factor for consumer meat purchasing decisions. Aging beef, which can improve tenderness, has been shown to accelerate discoloration in fresh beef, shortening retail display time, and generating negative flavor attributes. The objective of this study was to evaluate supplementing cattle high levels (2,200 International Units/ day) of Vitamin E to sustain meat quality during prolonged retail display in beef strip loins after 2 or 14 days aging compared to commercially-produced loins selected as controls. Results showed a treatment x age effect for Warner-Bratzler shear force and free calcium content, primarily due to aging. A dietary …

Effect Of Feeding Cars On Digestibility And Fatty Acid Flow In Finishing Cattle Diets, John C. Gibbons, Mitchell M. Norman, Tyler J. Spore, Hannah C. Wilson, Kylie Butterfield, Andea K. Watson, Galen E. Erickson, Jonathan W. Wilson

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

An experiment was conducted to evaluate the impact of a liquid feed, Condensed Algal Residue Solubles (CARS) on diet digestibility and fatty acid flow to the small intestine. Three treatments included CARS at 0, 2.5, and 5% of the diet dry matter, replacing steam-flaked corn. The base diet included 73, 70.5, or 68% steam flaked corn, 15% dried distillers grains plus solubles, 8% alfalfa haylage, and 4% supplement. Inclusion of CARS in the diet did not affect dry matter or organic matter intake or digestibility of dry matter, organic matter or neutral detergent fiber. Amount of fatty acid flowing to …

Evaluation Of Green Grass On Nutrient Digestibility And Fatty Acid Flow In Cattle Finishing Diets, Aksel R. Wiseman, Tyler J. Spore, Mitchell M. Norman, Hannah C. Wilson, J. C. Macdonald, Andrea K. Watson, Galen E. Erickson

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Six ruminally and duodenally cannulated steers were utilized in a 3 × 3 replicated Latin square experiment to test 0, 15, and 30% dietary inclusion of Green Grass (Sunseo Omega 3; Chungcheong Duk-Do, South Korea), a feed comprised of sesame meal, giant kelp, cassava, and sorghum (not currently approved to be fed in the US). Dry matter and fiber intake increased linearly with increased Green Grass inclusion. Dry matter and organic matter digestibility were not affected by Green Grass inclusion. Concentration of saturated fatty acids at the duodenum were similar for Green Grass 0 and Green Grass 15 with a …

Effect Of Biochar As A Feedlot Pen Surface Amendment On Manure Nutrient Capture, J. L. Sperber, Braden C. Troyer, Mitchell M. Norman, Levi J. Mcphillips, Heather Nobert, Andrea K. Watson, Galen E. Erickson

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Two mass balance experiments were conducted during winter and summer seasons to evaluate the effect of spreading biochar on the feedlot pen surface on manure nutrient retention. The winter experiment (Dec to June) evaluated three treatments including biochar spread to pen surface (approximately 54 lb of biochar per steer), hydrated lime spread to pen surface (cooperation with UNL Environmental Engineering; approximately 68 lb per steer) and negative control (no treatment applied). The summer experiment (June to Nov) evaluated biochar treatment (approximately 68 lb of biochar per steer) against negative control. Biochar utilized in winter and summer was unprocessed and sourced …

Interaction Of Sweet Bran Inclusion And Corn Processing Method In Beef Finishing Diets, Rebecca L. Sjostrand, Levi J. Mcphillips, Braden C. Troyer, Maggie Youngers, Rick Stock, J. C. Macdonald, Galen E. Erickson

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

The effects of corn processing method and Sweet Bran concentration on finishing cattle performance and carcass characteristics were evaluated in steam-flaked corn or a blend of high-moisture and dry-rolled corn-based diets. Sweet Bran was included at 0, 20, or 40% of diet dry matter. When cattle were fed 0% Sweet Bran, feeding steam-flaked corn resulted in a 11.7% improvement in feed conversion and heavier hot-carcass weight compared to feeding high-moisture/ dry-rolled corn. As Sweet Bran increased in the diet, there was a linear improvement in feed conversion for high-moisture/dry-rolled corn-fed steers and no change in feed conversion for steam-flaked corn-fed …

Effect Of Rapeseed Inclusion In Late-Summer Planted Oat Pasture On Growing Performance Of Beef Steers, Devin A. Jakub, Hannah E. Riley, Kristin E. Hales, Steven D. Shackelford, Harvey C. Freetly, M. E. Drewnoski

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

An oat monoculture was planted in late summer at 100 lb/ac and compared to oats planted at 50 lb/ac with rapeseed included at 3 lb/ac. Seed cost of the oat monoculture ($20/ac) was greater than the mix ($15/ac). Initial forage yield was not affected by the inclusion of rapeseed with fall oat. Calf gain was significantly greater and cost of gain was significantly decreased when rapeseed was included due to the combination of greater gains and lesser seed cost. Including rapeseed in late summer planted oats may be beneficial for producers who want to graze growing calves in the fall.

Interaction Of Urea With Frequency And Amount Of Distillers Grains Supplementation On Growing Steer Rumen Digestion Parameters, Haley F. Linder, Joshua E. Sebade, Tyler J. Spore, M. E. Drewnoski, J. C. Macdonald

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Ruminally cannulated steers were used in 8 × 6 row-column design with 8 animals and 6 periods. Treatment design was a 2 × 2 × 2 factorial, with factors including amount of supplementation, frequency of supplementation, and inclusion of urea. Hay dry matter intake was reduced by increased amount of supplementation and by decreased frequency of supplementation. Total VFA concentration did not differ among treatments. Rumen ammonia-N concentration was impacted by an interaction of amount of supplementation and inclusion of urea but there was no effect of supplementation frequency. In situ NDF disappearance did not differ between daily and alternate …

Comparison Of Partially Confined And Traditional Cow-Calf Systems, Zac E. Carlson, Levi J. Mcphillips, Galen E. Erickson, M. E. Drewnoski, J. C. Macdonald

Nebraska Beef Cattle Reports

Production of cow-calf pairs and grow/finish performance of calves from a partially-confined, fall-calving, intensive cow-calf system were compared to a traditional, spring-calving, extensive cow-calf system. Body condition was lower at breeding and weaning for the fall-calving alternative system compared to the traditional, spring-calving system. Conception, calving, and weaning rates were not different among treatments. Weaning weights were lower for the fall-calving alternative system than traditional, spring-calving system. Following weaning, calves were grown for 117 d and then subsequently finished to the same target fatness for both systems. In the grower phase, gain was greater and feed conversion improved for the …

Lateral Habenula Neurocircuits Mediate The Maternal Disruptive Effect Of Maternal Stress: A Hypothesis, Ming Li

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Up to 20% of women experience stress-related disorders during the postpartum period; however, little is known about the specific neural circuitry by which maternal stress exerts its negative impacts on mental health and maternal caregiving behavior. Theoretically, such a circuitry should serve as an interface between the stress response system and maternal neural network, transmitting stress signals to the neural circuitry that mediates maternal behavior. In this paper, I propose that the lateral habenula (LHb) serves this interface function. Evidence shows that the LHb plays a key role in encoding stress-induced effects and in the pathophysiology of major depression and …

Experimental Elucidation Of The Life Cycle Of Drepanocephalus Spathans (Digenea: Echinostomatidae) With Notes On The Morphological Plasticity Of D. Spathans In The United States, Neely R. Alberson, Thomas G. Rosser, Tommy King, Ethan T. Woodyard, Lester Khoo, Wes A. Baumgartner, Daviod J. Wise, Linda M. Pote, Fred L. Cunningham, Matt J. Griffin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The echinostomatid Drepanocephalus spathans (syn. Drepanocephalus auritus) parasitizes the doublecrested cormorant Phalacrocorax auritus. In North America, the marsh rams-horn snail Planorbella trivolvis and ghost rams-horn snail Biomphalaria havanensis serve as snail intermediate hosts, both of which inhabit catfish aquaculture ponds in the southeastern United States. Studies have demonstrated D. spathans exposure can be lethal to juvenile channel catfish Ictalurus punctatus. Two studies were undertaken to elucidate the life cycle of D. spathans to establish a developmental time line. In both studies, D. spathans cercariae collected from naturally infected P. trivolvis individuals were used to infect channel catfish …

Scavenging Vs Hunting Affects Behavioral Traits Of An Opportunistic Carnivore, Mitchell A. Parsons, Andrew Garcia, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background. Human-induced changes to ecosystems transform the availability of resources to predators, including altering prey populations and increasing access to anthropogenic foods. Opportunistic predators are likely to respond to altered food resources by changing the proportion of food they hunt versus scavenge. These shifts in foraging behavior will affect species interactions through multiple pathways, including by changing other aspects of predator behavior such as boldness, innovation, and social structure. Methods. To understand how foraging behavior impacts predator behavior, we conducted a controlled experiment to simulate hunting by introducing a prey model to captive coyotes (Canis latrans) and compared their behavior …

Influence Of Landscape Attributes On Virginia Opossum Density, David A. Bernasconi, Wesley C. Dixon, Matthew T. Hamilton, James L. Helton, Richard B. Chipman, Amy T. Gilbert, James C. Beasley, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Guha Dharmarajan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

TheVirginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana), North America's only marsupial, has a range extending from southern Ontario, Canada, to the Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico, and from the Atlantic seaboard to the Pacific. Despite the Virginia opossum's taxonomic uniqueness in relation to other mammals in North America and rapidly expanding distribution, its ecology remains relatively understudied. Our poor understanding of the ecology of this important mesopredator is especially pronounced in the rural southeastern United States. Our goal was to estimate effects of habitat on opossum density within an extensive multiyear spatial capture‐recapture study. Additionally, we compared the results of this spatial capture‐recapture …

Multidisciplinary Engagement For Fencing Research Informs Efficacy And Rancher-To-Researcher Knowledge Exchange, Matthew Hyde, Stewart W. Breck, Alex Few, Jared Beaver, Joshua Schrecengost, Jim Stone, Cameron Krebs, Russell Talmo, Kari Eneas, Rae Nickerson, Kyran E. Kunkel, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Across much of the Western United States, recovery of large carnivore populations is creating new challenges for livestock producers. Reducing the risks of sharing the landscape with recovering wildlife populations is critical to private working lands, which play an vital role in securing future energy, water, food, and fiber for an ever-expanding human population. Fencing is an important mitigation practice that many ranchers, land managers, and conservationists implement to reduce carnivore-livestock conflict. While fencing strategies have been reviewed in the literature, research seldom incorporates knowledge from the people who utilize fencing the most (i.e., livestock producers). Incorporating producers and practitioners …

Supplemental Peer Instruction In Physiologic Core Concept Education, Austin Choat

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The objective of my thesis project was to create and research the importance of supplemental learning videos within core physiological concepts identified by the Advancement of Physiological Principles for the purpose of assisting Dr. Kim Hansen in better educating students with less extensive foundational knowledge of chemical and biological sciences. Through researching the benefits of peer instruction, identifying core physiological concepts crucial to wholistic physiology education, and describing a student population hypothesized to benefit substantially from the work, I created educational videos to aid Dr. Hansen in her work as an educator and in the educational research she is striving …

Fertilizer Use In Aquaculture, Bartholomew W. Green

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Aquaculture ponds traditionally are fertilized to stimulate primary productivity, which serves as the base of the pond natural food web and provides ancillary ecosystem services. Fertilizer can be made regularly or based on some water quality variable or measure of algal productivity. Nutrients from chemical fertilizers are available sooner for phytoplankton growth compared to organic fertilizers that first must undergo microbial decomposition before nitrogen and phosphorus concentrations increase. Primary production increases with increased fertilizer application if productivity is limited by primary nutrients rather than by light. In semi-intensive and intensive production systems, natural pond productivity enhanced by targeted fertilization protocols …

Evaluation Of Settling Chamber Hydraulic Retention Time In A Sunshine Bass Biofloc Production System, Bartholomew W. Green, Candis L. Ray

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

High total suspended solids (TSS) concentrations that result from the high feeding rates used in biofloc technology production systems can negatively impact fish performance. Excess TSS are removed from biofloc production tanks by side-stream settling chambers. The effects on solids removal, water quality dynamics, and performance of sunshine bass (female white bass Morone chrysops x male striped bass M. saxatilis) from three settling chamber hydraulic retention times (HRTs; 18, 43, and 87 min; designated HRT18, HRT43, and HRT87, respectively) were evaluated in this 126-d study in biofloc tanks. Corresponding settling chamber flow rates were 7.2, 3.0, and 1.5 …

Longevity Of An Immunocontraceptive Vaccine Effect On Fecundity In Rats, Rebecca Pinkham, Douglas C. Eckery, Richard E. Mauldin, M. Gomm, F. Hill, F. Vial, G. Massei

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Increases in human-wildlife conflicts alongside cultural shifts against lethal control methods are driving the need for alternative wildlife management tools such as fertility control. Contraceptive formulations suitable for oral delivery would permit broader remote application in wildlife species.

This study evaluated the contraceptive effect and immune response to two novel injectable immunocontraceptive formulations targeting the Gonadotropin Releasing Hormone (GnRH): MAF-IMX294 and MAF-IMX294P conjugates, both identified as having potential as oral contraceptives. The study also explored whether in multiparous species immunocontraceptives may either totally prevent reproduction or also affect litter size.

Female rats, chosen as a model species, were given three …

Rapid Changes In Public Perception Toward A Conservation Initiative, Rebecca Niemiec, Richard E.W. Berl, Mireille Gonzalez, Tara L. Teel, Jonathan Salerno, Stewart Breck, Cassiopeia Camara, Matthew Collins, Courtney Scholtz, Dana Hoag, Kevin R. Crooks

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rapid, widespread changes in public perceptions and behaviors have the potential to influence conservation outcomes. However, few studies have documented whether and how such shifts occur throughout the span of a conservation initiative. We examined the 2020 ballot initiative to reintroduce wolves into Colorado, which passed with less support than prior surveys had estimated. We conducted a postelection survey of Colorado residents using the same methods as our preelection survey to compare responses between surveys and to official election results. Reported voting in favor of wolf reintroduction in the postelection survey decreased in comparison to voting intentions shared in the …

A Model For Leveraging Animal Movement To Understand Spatio-Temporal Disease Dynamics, Mark Q. Wilber, Anni Yang, Raoul Boughton, Kezia R. Manlove, Ryan S. Miller, Kim M. Pepin, George Wittemyer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The ongoing explosion of fine-resolution movement data in animal systems provides a unique opportunity to empirically quantify spatial, temporal and individual variation in transmission risk and improve our ability to forecast disease outbreaks. However, we lack a generalizable model that can leverage movement data to quantify transmission risk and how it affects pathogen invasion and persistence on heterogeneous landscapes. We developed a flexible model ‘Movement-driven modelling of spatio-temporal infection risk’ (MoveSTIR) that leverages diverse data on animal movement to derive metrics of direct and indirect contact by decomposing transmission into constituent processes of contact formation and duration and pathogen deposition …

Large- And Small-Scale Climate Influences Spring Migration Departure Probability Of American White Pelicans, D. Tommy King, Guiming Wang, Fred L. Cunningham

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Endogenous (e.g., age and sex) and exogenous (e.g., climate and resource availability) factors influence avian migration phenology. However, little is known regarding the migration ecology of birds at the non-breeding grounds, including the American white pelican (Pelecanus erythrorhynchos). We used Global Positioning System transmitters to track the movements and migration of 51 pelicans from 2002 to 2012. We used the Kaplan–Meier model to estimate pelican spring migration probabilities to quantify partial migration with 94 spring migration events and used the Cox proportional hazards model to evaluate the effects of the North Atlantic Oscillation index (NAOI), Southern Oscillation Index (SOI), and …

Adaptive Risk-Based Targeted Surveillance For Foreign Animal Diseases At The Wildlife-Livestock Interface, Ryan S. Miller, Sarah N. Bevins, Gericke Cook, Ross Free, Kim M. Pepin, Thomas Gidlewski, Vienna Brown

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Animal disease surveillance is an important component of the national veterinary infrastructure to protect animal agriculture and facilitates identification of foreign animal disease (FAD) introduction. Once introduced, pathogens shared among domestic and wild animals are especially challenging to manage due to the complex ecology of spillover and spillback. Thus, early identification of FAD in wildlife is critical to minimize outbreak severity and potential impacts on animal agriculture as well as potential impacts on wildlife and biodiversity. As a result, national surveillance and monitoring programs that include wildlife are becoming increasingly common. Designing surveillance systems in wildlife or, more importantly, at …

Evidence For Irruptive Fluctuation In Axis Deer Of Hawai‘I, Steven C. Hess, Jonathan Sprague, Jacob Muise

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Axis deer on the Hawaiian Islands of Maui, Lāna‘i, and Moloka‘i simultaneously experienced one of the most dramatic population crashes on record in 2020-2021, which coincided with extended drought conditions and prompted an emergency declaration for these islands. This phenomenon has been anecdotally documented during previous drought events in 2011-2012, but never formally studied. Newspaper articles document abundant deer becoming a nuisance to agriculture and natural resources, and then experiencing high mortality during droughts. This phenomenon fits Caughley’s (1970) operational definition of eruptive (sic) fluctuation “…as an increase in numbers over at least two generations, followed by a marked decline.” …

Cultivation Of Industrial Hemp On And Near Airports: Implications For Wildlife Use And Risk To Aviation Safety, Bradley F. Blackwell, Page E. Klug, Lee A. Humberg, Zachary T. Brym, Bryan M. Kluever, Jenna Edwards

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.; hemp) is an emerging crop in the United States with little known about bird use or the potential for birds to become an agricultural pest. We identified birds associated with hemp fields, using repeated visits to oilseed plots in North Dakota, USA (n = 6) and cannabinoid (CBD) plots in Florida, USA (n = 4) from August to November 2020. We did not control for plot area or density; our observations were descriptive only. We observed 10 species in hemp, 12 species flying over hemp, and 11 species both foraging in and …

Industrial Hemp As A Resource For Birds In Agroecosystems: Human-Wildlife Conflict Or Conservation Opportunity?, Emily A. Kotten, Iona Hennessy, Bryan M. Kluever, Bradley F. Blackwell, Lee A. Humberg, Page E. Klug

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Industrial hemp (Cannabis sativa L.; hemp) is an emerging crop in the United States with little known about bird use or the potential for birds to become an agricultural pest. We identified birds associated with hemp fields, using repeated visits to oilseed plots in North Dakota, USA (n = 6) and cannabinoid (CBD) plots in Florida, USA (n = 4) from August to November 2020. We did not control for plot area or density; our observations were descriptive only. We observed 10 species in hemp, 12 species flying over hemp, and 11 species both foraging in and …