Digital Commons Network^™

The Perceived Role Of Online Stem Dual Credit In Rural Nebraska High Schools, Trentee Bush

Department of Educational Administration: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

This exploratory study was based on interviews with twelve participants, four community college dual credit coordinators and eight high school administrators (principals and guidance counselors). The purpose was to understand the role of dual credit STEM courses in rural Nebraska high schools and the impact these courses had on the institution. The interview process revealed the lack of uniformity in dual credit processes throughout the state.

The concept of dual credit is widely discussed. The potential benefits and challenges of these courses and programs are vast. Without national legislation, each state can make determinations and decisions about state-wide policies related …

Natural Resource Condition Assessment, Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve, David S. Jones, Roy Cook, John Sovell, Christopher Herron, Jay Benner, Karin Decker, Andrew Beavers, Johannes Beebee, David Weinzimmer, Rob Schorr

United States National Park Service: Publications

Executive Summary

The National Park Service (NPS) Natural Resource Condition Assessment (NRCA) Program administered by the NPS Water Resources Division evaluates current conditions for important natural resources and resource indicators using primarily existing information and data. NRCAs also report on trends in resource condition when possible, identify critical data gaps, and characterize a general level of confidence for study findings. This NRCA complements historic resource assessments, is multi-disciplinary in scope, employs a hierarchical indicator framework, identifies and develops reference conditions/values for comparison against current conditions, and emphasizes spatial evaluation of conditions and GIS products.

Created in 1996, Tallgrass Prairie National …

Legacy Effects Of Biodegradable Mulch And Soil Amendments On Vegetable Crops And The Soil, Elise V. H. Reid

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Plastic film mulches are used in horticulture to manage weeds, improve water retention, and increase soil temperature. Bioplastics and biofabrics are potentially sustainable alternatives to plastic film; however, they have different rates of in soil degradation. Polylactic acid (PLA) is a 100% biobased polymer that degrades slowly, but could fulfill organic certification to be soil incorporated. Mater-Bi is a commercially available biodegradable plastic (bioplastic), which degrades quickly, but cannot be incorporated in organic systems. Our objectives were to determine the individual and combined effects of soil amendments and residual mulch on vegetable crop yield and soil fertility. In a two-year …

Effect Of Processing On Microbiota Accessible Carbohydrates In Whole Grains, Caroline Smith

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

There is potential to increase microbiota accessible carbohydrates (MAC) in whole grains through food processing. Therefore, different processing conditions for boiling and extrusion of whole wheat flour were studied for their effect on MAC. Processing conditions had a minimal effect on fermentation response using 2 fecal samples of disparate composition. However, the processing method had an impact on the fermentation of non-digestible carbohydrates and subsequent short chain fatty acids production, but only for a microbiome with high diversity and a predominance of microbes associated with dietary fiber intake. Subsequently, five processing methods: boiling, extrusion, unleavened bread, yeast bread, and sourdough …

Organic Agriculture Teaching And Learning In 2025: Transforming The Future Learning Landscape, Randa Jabbour, Charles A. Francis, Mary Barbercheck, Katharina S. Ullman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

University instructors are compelled to anticipate future changes in farming and food systems that will impact their students. Sixteen educators met in 2018 to envision the future of organic agriculture courses needed by 2025. Likely future global issues include food access, especially for people of limited economic means; climate change; and fossil fuel costs. Changes that will impact education are increasing demand for quality food, more organic production, and globalization of food systems due to consolidation. Probable course content changes are increasing focus on whole farm systems; designing for resilience in changing physical, economic, environmental, and political climates; and increasing …

Enhancing Single Walled Carbon Nanotube Deposition For The Study Of Extracellular Analytes, Joseph A. Stapleton

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Extracellular signaling is a dynamic process responsible for coordinating large scale biological processes. As such, understanding extracellular signaling is important to our determination of normal function and pathophysiological development. High resolution spatial and temporal information are critical to completely understanding these processes. Unfortunately, current methods of detection are lacking in either spatial or temporal resolution of extracellular products, limiting researchers’ ability to understand complex biological processes. A new group of sensors based on fluorescent single walled carbon nanotubes (SWNT) have shown the potential to provide both high quality spatial and temporal resolution for the sensing of analytes. However, while SWNT …

Remodeling Of Chlamydomonas Metabolism Using Synthetic Inducers Results In Lipid Storage During Growth, Nishikant Wase, Boqiang Tu, Girish Kumar Rasineni, Ronald Cerny, Ryan Grove, Jiri Adamec, Paul N. Black, Concetta Dirusso

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Microalgae accumulate lipids during stress such as that of nutrient deprivation, concomitant with cessation of growth and depletion of chloroplasts. By contrast, certain small chemical compounds selected by high-throughput screening in Chlamydomonas reinhardtii can induce lipid accumulation during growth, maintaining biomass. Comprehensive pathway analyses using proteomics, transcriptomics, and metabolomics data were acquired from Chlamydomonas cells grown in the presence of one of two structurally distinct lipid activators. WD10784 stimulates both starch and lipid accumulation, whereas WD30030-treated cells accumulate only lipids. The differences in starch accumulation are largely due to differential effects of the two compounds on substrate levels that feed …

Understanding Nitrogen Limitation In Soybean, Nicolas Cafaro La Menza

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Meeting soybean demand on existing cropland area for a global population of 9.7 billion people by the year 2050 requires narrowing the existing gap between average producer yield and yield potential. Soybean relies on two sources on nitrogen (N): biological N₂ fixation and indigenous soil N supply. As soybean yield continues to increase, it seems critical to know if there is a yield level at which potential contribution of indigenous nitrogen sources and fixation becomes insufficient to meet crop N requirements for high yields, while still maintaining or increasing protein and oil concentration. This study evaluated N limitation across …

An Analysis Of Ground Stone From The Basketmaker Communities Project In Montezuma County, Southwest Colorado, Anna R. Dempsey Alves

Department of Anthropology: Theses and Student Research

In this thesis, I analyze an assemblage of ground stone tools, including manos and metates, from Basketmaker III period (A.D. 500-725) settlements in the central Mesa Verde region of Montezuma County, Colorado. Ground stone is a historically understudied class of artifacts, and the data collection and analysis practices employed for most projects remain subpar, despite the publication of best practices guidelines (Adams 2014). Ground stone informs on critical research topics and must be analyzed to the same degree as other artifact categories. The sites include the Dillard site (5MT10647), an aggregated site with a great kiva, and five surrounding, smaller …

Rabies Surveillance Identifies Potential Risk Corridors And Enables Management Evaluation, Amy J. Davis, Kathleen M. Nelson, Jordana D. Kirby, Ryan M. Wallace, Xiaoyue Ma, Kim M. Pepin, Richard B. Chipman, Amy Gilbert

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Intensive efforts are being made to eliminate the raccoon variant of rabies virus (RABV) from the eastern United States and Canada. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Wildlife Services National Rabies Management Program has implemented enhanced rabies surveillance (ERS) to improve case detection across the extent of the raccoon oral rabies vaccination (ORV) management area. We evaluated ERS and public health surveillance data from 2006 to 2017 in three northeastern USA states using a dynamic occupancy modeling approach. Our objectives were to examine potential risk corridors for RABV incursion from the U.S. into Canada, evaluate the effectiveness of ORV …

Dietary Depletion Of Milk Exosomes And Their Microrna Cargos Elicits A Depletion Of Mir-200a-3p And Elevated Intestinal Inflammation And Chemokine (C-X-C Motif) Ligand 9 Expression In Mdr1a−/− Mice, Di Wu, Hatem Kittana, Jiang Shu, Stephen D. Kachman, Juan Cui, Amanda E. Ramer-Tait, Janos Zempleni

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: Exosomes transfer regulatory microRNAs (miRs) from donor cells to recipient cells. Exosomes and miRs originate from both endogenous synthesis and dietary sources such as milk. miR-200a-3p is a negative regulator of the proinflammatory chemokine (C-X-C motif) ligand 9 (CXCL9). Male Mdr1a−/− mice spontaneously develop clinical signs of inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).

Objectives: We assessed whether dietary depletion of exosomes and miRs alters the severity of IBD in Mdr1a−/− mice owing to aberrant regulation of proinflammatory cytokines.

Methods: Starting at 5 wk of age, 16 male Mdr1a−/− mice were fed either milk exosome– and RNA-sufficient (ERS) or milk exosome– and …

Informing The (Willfully) Uninformed, Syed Imran Ali Meerza, Emie Yiannaka, Christopher Rand Gustafson, Kate Brooks

Cornhusker Economics

Antimicrobial Resistance: The Role of Food and Agriculture or Nature White Noise -- which would you rather watch?

A recent study by researchers in the Department of Agricultural Economics at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln gave participants that choice. Nearly 40 percent of respondents avoided learning about antimicrobial resistance and chose the white noise video. The goal of the study was to shed light on the role that certain individual characteristics, such as knowledge, perceptions and attitudes, play on information avoidance behavior. In the study, information avoidance behavior is examined in the context of antimicrobial resistance.

The standard view in …

Ethanol Impairs Nrf2/Antioxidant And Growth Signaling In The Intact Placenta In Vivo And In Human Trophoblasts, Sambantham Shanmugam, Dhyanesh Patel, John M. Wolpert, Caezaan Keshvani, Xiaobo Lui, Susan E. Bergeson, Srivatsan Kidambi, Lenin Mahimainathan, George I. Henderson, Madhusudhanan Narasimhan

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

NRF2 is a redox-sensitive transcription factor that depending on the duration or magnitude of the stress, either translocates to the nucleus (beneficial) or is degraded in the cytosol (harmful). However, the role of NRF2-based mechanism(s) under ethanol (E)-induced developmental toxicity in the placental context remains unknown. Here, we used a rat prenatal model of maternal alcohol stress consisting of intermittent ethanol vapor (IEV) daily from GD11 to GD20 with a 6 h ON/18 h OFF in a vapor chamber and in vitro placental model consisting of HTR-8 trophoblasts exposed to 86 mM of E for either 24 h or 48 …

Data Of Soil, Vegetation And Bird Species Found On Double-Crested Cormorant Colonies In The Southeastern United States, Leah Moran Veum, Brian S. Dorr, Katie Hanson-Dorr, R. J. Moore, Scott A. Rush

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

This data article provides the methods and procedures followed to collect and analyse soil, vegetation and bird data on three different treatment islands in Guntersville Reservoir, Alabama. Samples were collected from randomly selected plot points from islands that were placed into three different treatment types: Colony (currently occupied by Double-crested Cormorants) (Phalacrocorax auritus; n 1⁄4 5), Historic (historically occupied by cormorants and currently abandoned; n 1⁄4 3) and Reference (never occupied by cormorants; n 1⁄4 4). We compared vegetation and tree metrics such as structure and diversity, as well as soil chemistry and bird diversity and communities among islands within …

Investigation Of Oxygen Reduction Reaction In Carbon-Based Electrocatalysts, Andrew Mason

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

In the modern era, some global challenges are energy storage conversion. To find sustainable solutions to this problem, researchers have turned to renewable energy resources. An example of promising energy generation devices is fuel cell. Fuel cells are electrochemical systems that convert the chemical energy of the fuel to electrochemical potential that can be used as direct current (dc) generators. Although these technologies are very attractive, they are known to be expensive due to high cost of catalysts and concerns regarding their energy densities. Fuel cells composed of two electrodes, namely cathode and anode and electrolyte separating the oxidizing agents …

Relationships Between Soil Macroinvertebrates And Nonnative Feral Pigs (Sus Scrofa) In Hawaiian Tropical Montane Wet Forests, Nathaniel H. Wehr, Creighton M. Litton, Noa K. Lincoln, Steven C. Hess

United States National Park Service: Publications

Abstract Nonnative feral pigs (Sus scrofa) are recognized throughout the New World as a highly significant introduced species in terms of ecosystem alteration. Similarly, nonnative soil macroinvertebrates (e.g. earthworms, ground beetles) invade and alter the structure and function of native habitats globally. However, the relationship between feral pigs and soil macroinvertebrates remains largely unknown. This study analyzed relationships between these taxa using nine sites located inside and outside of feral pig management units representing a * 25 year chronosequence of removal in tropical montane wet forests in Hawai‘i. Soil macroinvertebrates were sampled from plots categorized as: actively trampled by feral …

Purchasing Products To Make A Difference: A Study Of Corporate Social Responsibility, Gender, And Cosmetic Purchasing Behavior By College Students, Allegra Blomenberg

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The purpose of this study was to investigate gender differences that exist in the way corporate social responsibility (CSR) is perceived by college students and how this affects cosmetic purchasing behavior. Two other objectives included finding what drives millennial cosmetic purchasing behavior as a whole and the ways in which millennials are informed of companies’ corporate social responsibilities. Through analyses of interview data from fourteen college-age millennials, the study showed that non-binary participants more positively perceived CSR and actively bought from responsible brands. The male participant perceived CSR positively but had never been sure to purchase products from a brand …

Fetal Programming Of Intrauterine Growth Restricted Skeletal Muscle Stem Cell Function, Micah Most

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) reduces skeletal muscle mass in fetuses and offspring. The objective of this study was to determine if myoblasts (skeletal muscle stem cells) from maternal inflammation induced intrauterine growth-restricted (MI-IUGR) fetuses are less responsive to proliferation-stimulating factors in culture. Ovine MI-IUGR fetal myoblasts were isolated at 125 days of gestational age (dGA, term = 150 dGA), grown for 72 hours in complete growth media spiked with insulin, tumor necrosis factor α (TNFα), or unspiked (basal), and analyzed for ex vivo proliferative capacity via a 2 hour EdU pulse. A second set of myoblasts were differentiated in differentiation …

Cercarial Parasitism Of Freshwater Snails In Sandhills Ponds Versus Streams, Caroline Emily Spethman

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Parasite prevalence was calculated for all aquatic snails collected from four freshwater localities in Western Nebraska from Summer 2016 to 2019: Dunwoody Pond, Haythorn Ranch, Neven’s Restoration, and Breen’s Flyaway. With data of increasing trematode cercarial infection specifically at Dunwoody Pond, this community was further studied. In Summer 2019, a total of 217 freshwater snails representing species of Physa sp., Stagnicola elodes (Say,1821), and Helisoma anceps (Menke,1830) were collected from Dunwoody Pond and Dunwoody stream, near Ogallala, Nebraska. Eighty-one snails were collected from Dunwoody Pond, 76 snails were collected 31 meters upstream, and 60 snails were collected 61 meters upstream …

An Annotated Checklist Of The Scarabaeoidea (Insecta: Coleoptera) Of The Guianas, Auke J. Hielkema, Meindert A. Hielkema

Insecta Mundi

A checklist of the Scarabaeoidea (except Passalidae) of the Guianas (Guyana, Suriname and French Guiana) is presented for the first time. Both recorded and potential species are included, the latter defined as being recorded from Brazil north of the Amazon/Rio Negro main channel or from Venezuela east of the Orinoco main channel. The checklist contains a total of 930 species and subspecies, with 265 validly recorded from Guyana (eight new country records), 388 from Suriname (146 new country records), 531 from French Guiana (four new country records) and 177 additional species recorded from contiguous areas of neighboring Brazil and Venezuela. …

Metabolic Modeling Elucidates The Transactions In The Rumen Microbiome And The Shifts Upon Virome Interactions, Mohammad Mazharul Islam, Samodha C. Fernando, Rajib Saha

Department of Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering: Faculty Publications

The complex microbial ecosystem within the bovine rumen plays a crucial role in host nutrition, health, and environmental impact. However, little is known about the interactions between the functional entities within the system, which dictates the community structure and functional dynamics and host physiology. With the advancements in high-throughput sequencing and mathematical modeling, in silico genome-scale metabolic analysis promises to expand our understanding of the metabolic interplay in the community. In an attempt to understand the interactions between microbial species and the phages inside rumen, a genome-scale metabolic modeling approach was utilized by using key members in the rumen microbiome …

Cafe Erc Nasis Survey Questions 2019 Winter Report, Julia Mcquillan

Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS)

Using NSF ERC Planning Grant funds ($7,500), we added X number of survey items to the 2019 Winter Nebraska Annual Social Indicators Survey (NASIS) conducted by the Bureau of Sociological Research (BOSR). In 2019 NASIS was conducted by mail. BOSR mailed surveys to a random sample of Nebraska households using Address Based Sampling. The CAFE ERC planning team added questions to NASIS along with other researchers at the University of Nebraska who shared the cost of the “core” questions (e.g. level of education, age, race/ethnicity, depression, religion, political orientation, quality-of-life topics, etc). Overall NASIS is a cost-effective way to collect …

The Effects Of Combinations Of Limited Ration And Diazinon Exposure On Acetylcholinesterase Activity, Growth And Reproduction In Oryzias Latipes, The Japanese Medaka, Kevin Flynn, Rodney Johnson, Doug Lothenbach, Joe Swintek, Frank Whiteman, Matthew Etterson

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Environmental contamination can negatively impact fish populations. In addition to acute toxicity leading to death, toxicants can reduce fish growth and lower reproduction. The potential for adverse population level effects of environmental contaminants are estimated to conduct risk assessments from laboratory toxicity tests that most often measure apical endpoints related to growth, survival and reproduction. The relationships between these effect endpoints are being evaluated to predict shifts in fish population demography better after exposure to environmental toxicants. Environmental contaminants can also affect fish populations indirectly by reducing prey biomass. However, estimating the magnitude of the combined effects of prey reduction …

Founders Of Plant Ecology: Frederic And Edith Clements, Jon H. Oberg

University of Nebraska State Museum: Staff and Affiliates, Publications

Nineteenth-century students of Charles Bessey at the University of Nebraska, Frederic Clements and Edith Schwartz received doctorates in botany, married, and went on to become founders of the discipline of plant ecology. They tested and taught their theory of plant succession, known as Clementsian ecology, for nearly four decades at their Alpine laboratory in Colorado. Their leadership and influence at the Carnegie Institution was world-wide and attracted followers from several other disciplines. They advocated land use measures to combat the Dust Bowl in the 1930s. Clementsian ecology is still recognized as a paradigm against which other theories of nature are …

Robert J. Baker Encomium: Hugh H. Genoways, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Dear Robert:

This is the letter that I always intended to write, but never found the right time to do it, so now seems as good a time as any. I want to take this opportunity to thank you for all of your kindness to me and my family over the years. I arrived in Lubbock in early September in 1971 with a newly minted Ph.D. and no idea of how to survive in a fairly hostile academic environment. You took me under your wing and guided me through five interesting years. I know that there was no reason that …

Predictors Of Bat Species Richness Within The Islands Of The Caribbean Basin, Justin D. Hoffman, Gabrielle Kadlubar, Scott C. Pedersen, Roxanne J. Larsen, Peter A. Larsen, Carleton J. Phillips, Gary G. Kwiecinski, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Several mechanisms have been shown to influence species richness among island ecosystems, yet most studies limit their focus to a few predictor variables. The objective of this study is to investigate variation in Chiropteran richness across islands in the Caribbean Basin with an extensive set of predictor variables. Using recent faunal surveys, the most contemporary list of bat species per island was complied. Data were collected on 17 predictor variables, which summarized five general island characteristics including island area, isolation, habitat diversity, human impact, and climate. An information-theoretic approach was used by fitting alternative candidate models to determine which variable(s) …

Overture [From Field To Laboratory: A Memorial Volume In Honor Of Robert J. Baker], Robert D. Bradley, David J. Schmidly, Hugh H. Genoways, Lisa C. Bradley

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

Introduction to the memorial volume of Special Publications / Museum of Texas Tech University in honor of Robert J. Baker.

First paragraph:

Herein, we use the word “Overture” not in its first meaning, but rather in its second—“An introduction to something more substantial” ([Def. 2], Oxford Dictionaries, Oxford University Press 2018). In our current case, this is the overture to a memorial volume in honor of our friend and colleague Robert J. Baker. Here, his former students and colleagues have taken time and effort to write 43 essays and scientific articles and 54 personal encomia in demonstration of their …

A Scientometric Appreciation Of Robert J. Baker's Contributions To Science And Mammalogy, David J. Schmidly, Robert D. Bradley, Emma K. Roberts, Lisa C. Bradley, Hugh H. Genoways

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

This article describes Robert James Baker’s academic pedigree and genealogy, his scientific productivity (number of publications), his citations, his students, his contributions to his university and scientific societies, his personality in relation to his scientific achievements, his legacy, and a personal note of appreciation by individuals who worked with him and knew him well. His accomplishments are compared with other dominant personalities in the field of mammalogy, both historical and contemporary. The paper builds on the 2018 obituary authored by Hugh Genoways and others that was published in the Journal of Mammalogy, but includes a much more quantitative and …

The Neotropical Variegated Squirrel, Sciurus Variegatoides (Rodentia: Sciuridae) In Nicaragua, With The Description Of A New Subspecies, Hugh H. Genoways, Robert M. Timm

University of Nebraska State Museum: Mammalogy Papers

The Neotropical variegated squirrel, Sciurus variegatoides, is represented in Nicaragua by five known subspecies—adolphei, belti, boothiae, dorsalis, and underwoodi. Analyses of morphometrics, color, and color patterns of 394 specimens from throughout the country and all available literature support the retention of these subspecies, but also reveal the presence of a sixth population of these squirrels, which is worthy of description and recognition as a new subspecies. This new subspecies is confined to Isla de Ometepe in Lago de Nicaragua. Variegated squirrels on Ometepe are on average the smallest variegated squirrels in the country …

Dose Effects Of Recombinant Adenovirus Immunization In Rodents, Eric A. Weaver

Nebraska Center for Virology: Faculty Publications

Recombinant adenovirus type 5 (rAd) has been used as a vaccine platform against many infectious diseases and has been shown to be an effective vaccine vector. The dose of the vaccine varies significantly from study to study, making it very diffcult to compare immune responses and vaccine effcacy. This study determined the immune correlates induced by serial dilutions of rAd vaccines delivered intramuscularly (IM) and intranasally (IN) to mice and rats. When immunized IM, mice had substantially higher antibody responses at the higher vaccine doses, whereas, the IN immunized mice showed a lower response to the higher rAd vaccine doses. …