Digital Commons Network^™

Individual Trophic Niche Specialization In American Beaver (Castor Canadensis), Jimmy Taylor, Robert Francis, Scott Rush, Bronson Strickland, Guiming Wang

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The American beaver (Castor canadensis) has been described as a choosy generalist at the species/population scale, yet observational studies have shown little variation in diet among individuals. We compared isotopic values of δ¹³C or δ¹⁵N taken from hair of 32 beaver, representing seven colonies in northern Alabama, USA to determine 1) if colonies of beaver show overlap in isotopic niche width as a result of the similar use of food resources and 2) if individual trophic niche specialization occurs within colonies. Total Trophic Niche Width varied across the wetland with the widest being twice …

Program And Proceedings: Nebraska Academy Of Sciences 1880–2022, 142nd Anniversary Year, One Hundred-Thirty-Second Annual Meeting, April 22, 2022

Nebraska Academy of Sciences: Programs and Proceedings

Program

Aeronautics and Space Science

Anthropology

Applied Science and Technology

Biological Sciences

Biomedical Sciences

Chemistry

Earth Sciences

Environmental Sciences

Physics

2022 Maiben Lecture: Dan Sitzman

2022 Friend of Science Award: Julie Sigmon and Chris Schaben

Scarlet Hotel Is Open To Serve Huskers, Kate Engel

Nebraska Innovation Campus Materials

Nebraska’s Scarlet Hotel is open for business. Located at Nebraska Innovation Campus, the 154-room Marriott Tribute hotel is home to The Good Life Coffee Shop; the Well & Good, the hotel’s signature restaurant; and the Barred Owl, the rooftop bar with incredible views of Lincoln. The hotel’s restaurant, bar and coffee shop are open to the public and feature Nebraska-inspired cuisine and drinks. A grand opening celebration for the hotel is scheduled for 4 p.m. May 6.

Designing Experiments: The Impact Of Peer Review Structure On Organic Chemistry Students' Experimental Designs, Katie Patterson

Department of Chemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To better understand how peer review can be used to support students when designing experiments, the current thesis examined how the structure of the peer review template affects the kinds of feedback students give and the revisions that they make. I utilized a quasi-experimental design to investigate the effects that the peer review template had on the outcome of an experimental design task. A sample of 195 students enrolled in an Organic Chemistry I course participated in the study. The students were divided into two groups, one of which was given a scaffolded peer review template and the other was …

Examining The Impact Of Political Identification And Morality On Compliance With Covid-19 Public Health Measures, Jessica Stump

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

COVID-19 provides a unique opportunity to study the influence of individual and group differences on beliefs and behavior. In the present work, we examine COVID beliefs and behavior as a function of morality, ideology, and emotion. Data were collected in the spring of 2021 and the fall of 2021, allowing for distinct snapshots of an undergraduate sample at two periods of the pandemic. Of primary interest was the relationship between political ideology, moral foundation endorsement, and COVID-19 behaviors and beliefs. The results reveal that ideology drives COVID-19-related beliefs and behaviors. The results from Study 2 suggest that political liberals were …

Investigation Of The Role Of Overexpression Of Psbs Under Stress Inducible And Constitutive Promoters To Improve Water Use Efficiency., Annie Nelson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

As climate change continues to impact environmental growth conditions, it has become increasingly more important to identify potential mechanisms of crop development to resist these changes. Previous studies have identified the role of PsbS in the non-photochemical quenching (NPQ) mechanism in the plant by identifying its direct effect on the rate in which excitation energy absorbed by photosystem II is dissipated as heat. It was identified also that PsbS via NPQ oxidizes chloroplastic quinone A (QA) which is a signal for stomatal opening in response to light. By identifying this relationship between PsbS and the signal for stomatal opening in …

Creating A Popular Science Collection To Support Interest, Research, And Curriculum At The University Of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries, Casey Hoeve, Kiyomi Deards

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Presentations

In 2016 the University of Nebraska–Lincoln Libraries opened the Adele Coryell Hall Learning Commons in the main library (Love Library) with the intention of creating an informal user space for study and social interactions. Within the Learning Commons, a popular science collection was curated based upon patron interest and to organize a scattered collection into a more discoverable location. The collection has been highly used by patrons, and new content is regularly added each year.

In addition to general interest, the popular science collection supports on-campus classes and colloquial talks. In this presentation, the history of the collection and which …

First Reproductive Evidence For The Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus Attenuatus) In Nebraska, Keith Geluso

Transactions of the Nebraska Academy of Sciences and Affiliated Societies

The Slender Glass Lizard (Ophisaurus attenuatus) reproduces across parts of northern and central Kansas, but its distribution extends into southern Nebraska. In Nebraska, not a single aspect of reproductive activity has been reported for this species in the state. Herein, we report on the first documentation of reproduction in Nebraska. On 22 September 2021, we captured two hatchling Slender Glass Lizards at the Ash Grove Wildlife Management Area in Franklin County, Nebraska. We calculated that those individuals likely hatched around the first week of September. Presence and reproduction of Slender Glass Lizards at the study site likely was …

University Of Washington Faculty Senate Resolution Regarding Support For The Uw Libraries’ Principles In Licensing Scholarly Resources

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

WHEREAS, a healthy and sustainable scholarly ecosystem is one where knowledge is openly discoverable and openly shared, where there is a diversity of options for researchers to publish and disseminate their work, and where investments made by the University prioritize advancing broader impacts of research and teaching for the public good; therefore BE IT RESOLVED, that the UW Faculty Senate endorses the UW Libraries principles in licensing scholarly resources as follows:

SUSTAINABILITY:

ACCESS AND EQUITY:

SUPPORT OF SCHOLARSHIP AND TEACHING:

(Includes FAQ)

Two Magnaporthe Appressoria-Specific (Mas) Proteins, Momas3 And Momas5, Are Required For Suppressing Host Innate Immunity And Promoting Biotrophic Growth In Rice Cells, Ziwen Gong, Na Ning, Zhiqiang Li, Xin Xie, Richard Wilson, Wende Liu

Department of Plant Pathology: Faculty Publications

In the devastating rice blast fungus Magnaporthe oryzae, six Magnaporthe appressoria-specific (MAS) proteins are encoded by MoGAS1, MoGAS2 and MoMAS3–MoMAS6. MoGAS1 and MoGAS2 were previously characterized as M. oryzae virulence factors; however, the roles of the other four genes are unknown. Here, we found that, although the loss of any MAS gene did not affect appressorial formation or vegetative growth, ΔMomas3 and ΔMomas5 mutant strains (but not the others) were reduced in virulence on susceptible CO-39 rice seedlings. Focusing on ΔMomas3 and ΔMomas5 mutant strains, we found that they could penetrate …

Peptidomics Analysis Reveals Changes In Small Urinary Peptides In Patients With Interstitial Cystitis/Bladder Pain Syndrome, Md Shadman Ridwan Abid, Haowen Qiu, Bridget A. Tripp, Aline De Lima Leite, Heidi Roth, Jiri Adamec, Robert Powers, James W. Checco

UNL Student Research Days Posters, Graduate

Interstitial cystitis or bladder pain syndrome (IC/BPS) is a chronic and debilitating pain disorder of the bladder and urinary tract with poorly understood etiology. Symptomatic criteria to aid in the diagnosis of IC/BPS includes bladder pain, an increase in urinary urgency or Hunner’s ulcers on the bladder wall.

Our study revealed differences in the profiles of small urinary peptides for IC/BPS patients compared to age-matched controls which is consistent with increased protease activity in IC/BPS. Our study also enabled the direct measurement of APF peptide abundance in IC/BPS and control urine. Our results indicate that the full-length APF peptide was …

“Many People Have No Idea”: A Qualitative Analysis Of Healthcare Barriers Among Yazidi Refugees In The Midwestern United States, Falah Rashoka, Megan S. Kelley, Jeong‑Kyun Choi, Marc A. Garcia, Weiwen Chai, Hazim N. Rashawka

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: The COVID-19 pandemic has shed new light on inequities in healthcare access faced by immigrant and refugee communities. To address ongoing disparities, there is an urgent need for ecological approaches to better understand the barriers that hinder and resources that facilitate access to healthcare. This study investigates barriers to healthcare system access faced by Yazidi refugees in the Midwestern United States.

Methods: Informed by the Interpretative Phenomenological Approach, three focus group meetings with a community advisory board were conducted between September 2019 and January 2020. The nine-member focus group included social workers, healthcare providers, and members of …

Governor Signs Budget With Investment In Ag Innovation Facility, University Communication

Nebraska Innovation Campus Materials

Gov. Pete Ricketts on April 4 [2022] signed a mid-biennium budget package for the state that makes investments in key priorities of the University of Nebraska System, including the University of Nebraska–Lincoln’s agricultural innovation facility. The budget package includes $25 million for the agricultural innovation facility, which will serve as a companion to the United States Department of Agriculture’s proposed National Center for Precision, Resilient and Regenerative Agriculture. Both facilities are being planned for construction on Nebraska Innovation Campus. As proposed, the $50 million companion facility will feature a public-private partnership with $25 million provided via private funds and the …

Developing Indie Games With Agile, Camden Obertop

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Agile software development has ushered in major improvements to the development of software in the 21st century. Video game development is a form of development that is unique from other types of software engineering, as it can involve work from artists, musicians, voice actors, and others. This paper explores the question whether agile software development as Scrum is an effective tool for creating video games. Ultimately, it can be seen that agile is a very important asset to game developers.

Auditory Experience Modulates Frontoparietal Theta Activity Serving Fluid Intelligence, Elizabeth Heinrichs-Graham, Elizabeth A. Walker, Brittany K. Taylor, Sophia C. Menting

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

Children who are hard of hearing are at risk for developmental language and academic delays compared with children with normal hearing. Some work suggests that high-order cognitive function, including fluid intelligence, may relate to language and academic outcomes in children with hearing loss, but findings in these studies have been mixed and to date, there have been no studies of the wholebrain neural dynamics serving fluid intelligence in the context of hearing loss. To this end, this study sought to identify the impact of hearing loss and subsequent hearing aid use on the neural dynamics serving abstract reasoning in children …

When Your Data Is My Grandparents Singing: Digitisation And Access For Cultural Records, The Pacific And Regional Archive For Digital Sources In Endangered Cultures (Paradisec), Nick Thieberger, Amanda Harris

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

In this paper we discuss the Pacific and Regional Archive for Digital Sources in Endangered Cultures (PARADISEC), a research repository that explicitly aims to act as a conduit for research outputs to a range of audiences, both within and outside of academia. PARADISEC has been operating for 19 years, and has grown to hold over 390,000 files currently totaling 150 terabytes and representing 1,312 languages, many of them from Papua New Guinea and the Pacific. Our focus is on recordings and transcripts in the many small languages of the world, the songs and stories that are unique cultural expressions. While …

Ubjective Information And Survival In A Simulated Biological System, Tyler S. Barker, Massimiliano Pierobon, Peter J. Thomas

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Information transmission and storage have gained traction as unifying concepts to characterize biological systems and their chances of survival and evolution at multiple scales. Despite the potential for an information-based mathematical framework to offer new insights into life processes and ways to interact with and control them, the main legacy is that of Shannon’s, where a purely syntactic characterization of information scores systems on the basis of their maximum information efficiency. The latter metrics seem not entirely suitable for biological systems, where transmission and storage of different pieces of information (carrying different semantics) can result in different chances of survival. …

Addressing The Disconnects Between Hr And Child Welfare, Michelle Graef, Maggie Thompson

QIC-Takes

When it comes to efforts to improve workforce outcomes, how would you describe the relationship between human resources (HR) and child welfare leadership in your agency? Is the working relationship collaborative or are the divisions siloed? Do child welfare and HR departments routinely share information, needs, data, and expertise? Is HR involved in child welfare workforce planning and decision making? These are just a few of the questions we have explored with child welfare agencies as part of our work at the QIC-WD. Overall, agency representatives have indicated that opportunities for increased collaboration exist between these departments and that closer …

Considerations For Establishing Silvopastures On Wooded Sites, Brett Chedzoy, Ashley Conway, John Fike, Kate Macfarland

Agroforestry Notes (USDA-NAC)

Like other conservation and production practices, silvopasture management is not the right fit for every site or every land manager. High quality woodlands with high native species diversity are generally not a good starting point for silvopasture establishment. However, silvopasture provides an opportunity for active forest management on other sites that have been neglected or poorly managed with undesirable species composition, invasive species concerns, and other challenges. In some situations, silvopasture management can be used to aid in ecosystem restoration or fuels mitigation. The land manager and others in the silvopasture team should consider natural resource issues highlighted in this …

Wiley Journal Package: Unl Download Activity By Subject, David C. Tyler, Casey Hoeve, David Macaulay, Robin Mcclanahan

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: White Papers

Because the field of librarianship has been reconsidering its relationship to commercial academic publishers and their 'Big Deal' journal packages, the authors decided to review the University of Nebraska-Lincoln's usage of Wiley's package. In this report, the authors looked into whether UNL's downloads by subject were such that subscribing to a number of hypothetical smaller, subject-specific packages, rather than to the entire Wiley package, might be a viable strategy.

K-2 Theater And Art Club, Hailey Revord, Madelyn Kreifels

Honors Program: Expanded Learning Clubs

No abstract provided.

Improving Low-Income Housing Can Help The Environment!, Ethan Halman Gonzalez, Margo Johnson, Alesha Skoda, Shane Vrbicky

Environmental Engagement in the Community (ENVR 319): Student Projects

Environmental Engagement in the Community projects, spring 2022

Poster titled Improving Low-income Housing Can Help the Environment! for client City of Lincoln, Nebraska.

The Role Of Risk In Farmland Contract Choices, Chelsea Arnold, Jisang Yu, Mykel Taylor, Leah H. Palm-Forster, Simanti Banerjee

Department of Agricultural Economics: Faculty Publications

Understanding the role of risk in farmland leasing contract choices is important to assess the welfare consequences of farm policies or environmental changes that affect production risk. We use a unique dataset of landowners and tenants in Kansas to examine the role of risk in their farmland leasing contract choices. We find that greater production risk and more risk-averse landowners encourage fixed cash rent contracts. As many variables can potentially affect contract choices, we use a penalized regression to show that the inclusion of relationship variables leads to little change in the main results.

Fish & Wildlife News: Spring 2022, Matt Trott

Fish and Wildlife News

No abstract provided.

Droughtscape, Spring 2022, National Drought Mitigation Center

DroughtScape: Quarterly Newsletter of the National Drought Mitigation Center (2007–2023)

DroughtScape, Spring 2022

Society Dilemma Of Computer Technology Management In Today's World, Iwasan D. Kejawa Ed.D

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

Abstract - Is it true that some of the inhabitants of the world’s today are still hesitant in using computers? Research has shown that today many people are still against the use of computers. Computer technology management can be said to be obliterated by security problems. Research shows that some people in society feel reluctant or afraid to use computers because of errors and exposure of their privacy and their sophistication, which sometimes are caused by computer hackers and malfunction of the computers. The dilemma of not utilizing computer technology at all or, to its utmost, by certain people in …

Reflection Types And Students’ Viewing Of Feedback In A First-Year Engineering Course Using Standards-Based Grading, Heidi A. Diefes-Dux, Laura M. Cruz Castro

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Background: Feedback is one of the most powerful and essential tools for learning and assessment, particularly when it provides the information necessary to close an existing gap between actual and reference levels of performance. The literature on feedback has primarily focused on addressing strategies for providing effective feedback rather than aspects of students’ readiness to engage with feedback. Purpose/Hypothesis: This study investigated whether reflection, as a routine pedagogical intervention grounded in self-regulated learning theory, promotes the frequency with which students view feedback. Design/Method: A quasi-experimental design was employed to examine the relationship between the use of four different reflection types, …

Journal Of The National Collegiate Honors Council, Vol. 23, No. 1, Spring/Summer 2022

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Forum Essays on “The Value of Honors to its Graduates”: Authors: Paul Ewing, University of Toledo; Andy Walker, University of Tennessee at Chattanooga; Laura Barrett, LIU Brooklyn; John Major, Ohio State University; Teri Grieb, Columbia College, South Carolina; James A. Keller, University of Delaware; LLeweLLyn Cooper, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Ayesha Ahmed, Northeastern Illinois University; Mary Beth Messner, Youngstown State University; Eric W. Miller, West Virginia University; Sara McCane-Bowling, Eastern Kentucky University; Michelle Panuccio, Youngstown State University; Lia M. Shore, Georgia Perimeter College, Dunwoody; Jennifer N. Dulin, Texas A&M University; Pepper Hayes, …

Jnchc, Vol. 23, No. 1: Frontmatter

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Front cover

Masthead, etc.

Contents

Call for papers

Editorial policy

Dedication: Anne N. Rinn

Editor’s introduction: Ada Long

Wicked²: The Increasing Wickedness Of Educational Developers As Dei Cultural Influencers, Lauri Dietz, China M. Jenkins, Laura Cruz, Amber Handy, Rita Kumar, Rita Kumar, Julia Metzger, Ian Norris

To Improve the Academy: A Journal of Educational Development

The global pandemic that began in 2020 amplified the chasm between higher education’s stated goals to advance diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) and the systemic realities that many students, instructors, and staff grapple with on a daily basis. We contend that attenuating the barriers to DEI outcomes means first acknowledging that DEI is a wicked problem, in that it is impossible to solve because of competing, conflicting, and complex sociocultural forces from within and outside our institutions. We also contend that educational developers (EDs) are particularly well situated within the higher education ecology to be key cultural influencers in how …