Digital Commons Network^™

Implementation Of Epigenetic Variation In Sorghum Selection And Implications For Crop Resilience Breeding, Dikungwa Ketumile, Xiaodong Yang, Robersy Sanchez, Hardik Kundariya, John F. Rajewski, Ismail M. Dweikat, Sally A. Mackenzie

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Crop resilience and yield stability are complex traits essential for food security. Sorghum bicolor is an important grain crop that shows promise for its natural resilience to drought and potential for marginal land production. We have developed sorghum lines in the Tx430 genetic background suppressed for MSH1 expression as a means of inducing de novo epigenetic variation, and have used these materials to evaluate changes in plant growth vigor. Plant crossing and selection in two distinct environments revealed features of phenotypic plasticity derived from MSH1 manipulation. Introduction of an epigenetic variation to an isogenic sorghum population, in the absence of …

Assessment Of Bacterial Inoculant Delivery Methods For Cereal Crops, Yen Ning Chai, Stephanie Futrell, Daniel P. Schachtman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Despite growing evidence that plant growth-promoting bacteria can be used to improve crop vigor, a comparison of the different methods of delivery to determine which is optimal has not been published. An optimal inoculation method ensures that the inoculant colonizes the host plant so that its potential for plant growth-promotion is fully evaluated. The objective of this study was to compare the efficacy of three seed coating methods, seedling priming, and soil drench for delivering three bacterial inoculants to the sorghum rhizosphere and root endosphere. The methods were compared across multiple time points under axenic conditions and colonization efficiency was …

Baseflow And Water Resilience Variability In Two Water Management Units In Southeastern Brazil, Lucas Vituri Santarosa, Didier Gastmans, Troy E. Gilmore, Jan Boll, Sebastian Balbin Betancur, Vitor Fidelis Monteiro Gonçalves

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

Changes in climate and water demand in densely populated regions increasingly affect hydrological systems, and, in turn, impact socioeconomic conditions. In this case study, we identify how the hydrogeological frameworks of two water resource management units, Tietê-Jacaré (TJ) and Piracicaba-Capivari-Jundiaí (PCJ) in Sao Paulo state (Brazil), control the baseflow processes and resilience in the face of streamflow fluctuations in response to anthropogenic activities and climate variation. The results reveal between 40% and 75% contributions of baseflow to total streamflow in basins overlying crystalline and sedimentary aquifers. The basins in PCJ which mostly overly crystalline aquifers, have shorter water residence times …

Genetic Parameters, Heterosis, And Breed Effects For Body Condition Score And Mature Cow Weight In Beef Cattle, André Mauric F. Ribeiro, Leticia P. Sanglard, Warren M. Snelling, R. Mark Thallman, Larry A. Kuehn, Matthew L. Spangler

Department of Animal Science: Faculty Publications

Understanding the genetic relationship between mature cow weight (MWT) and body condition score (BCS) is useful to implement selection programs focused on cow efficiency. The objectives of this study were to estimate genetic parameters, heterosis, and breed effects for MWT and BCS. In total, 25,035 and 24,522 overlapping records were available for MWT and BCS on 6,138 and 6,131 cows, respectively, from the Germplasm Evaluation program, a crossbred beef population at the U.S. Meat Animal Research Center. Pedigree was available for 48,013 individuals. Univariate animal models were used to estimate heritabilities for each trait by parity. …

Tibetan Dust Accumulation Linked To Ecological And Landscape Response To Global Climate Change, Xianmei Huang, Xiaodong Miao, Qiufang Chang, Jiemei Zhong, Joseph A. Mason, Paul R. Hanson, Xianjiao Ou, Liubing Xu, Zhongping Lai

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

The Tibetan Plateau (TP) is a hotspot of earth system research, and understanding its landscape and ecosystem evolution has been hampered by the lack of time-constrained geological records. Geochronological data from 14 loess sites covering a large region in the Tibetan interior show that the TP loess, rather than accumulating during glacial periods, began aggrading at either 13.4 ± 0.4 or 9.9 ± 0.2 ka. An ecological threshold was crossed, when warmer and wetter conditions resulted in increased vegetation cover enabling dust trapping. This dust accumulation model is out of phase with that of the Chinese Loess Plateau (CLP) where …

Seed-Shattering Phenology At Soybean Harvest Of Economically Important Weeds In Multiple Regions Of The United States. Part 3: Drivers Of Seed Shatter, Lauren M. Schwartz-Lazaro, Lovreet S. Shergill, Jeffrey A. Evans, Muthukumar V. Bagavathiannan, Shawn C. Beam, Mandy D. Bish, Jason A. Bond, Kevin W. Bradley, William S. Curran, Adam S. Davis, Wesley J. Everman, Michael L. Flessner, Steven C. Haring, Nicholas R. Jordan, Nicholas E. Korres, John L. Lindquist, Jason K. Norsworthy, Tameka L. Sanders, Larry E. Steckel, Mark J. Vangessel, Blake Young, Steven B. Mirsky

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Seed retention, and ultimately seed shatter, are extremely important for the efficacy of harvest weed seed control (HWSC) and are likely influenced by various agroecological and environmental factors. Field studies investigated seed-shattering phenology of 22 weed species across three soybean [Glycine max (L.) Merr.]-producing regions in the United States. We further evaluated the potential drivers of seed shatter in terms of weather conditions, growing degree days, and plant biomass. Based on the results, weather conditions had no consistent impact on weed seed shatter. However, there was a positive correlation between individual weed plant biomass and delayed weed seed-shattering rates during …

Corn Nitrogen Nutrition Index Prediction Improved By Integrating Genetic, Environmental, And Management Factors With Active Canopy Sensing Using Machine Learning, Dan Li, Yuxin Miao, Curtis J. Ransom, Gregory Mac Bean, Newell R. Kitchen, Fabián G. Fernández, John E. Sawyer, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Richard B. Ferguson, David W. Franzen, Carrie A. M. Laboski, Emerson D. Nafziger, John F. Shanahan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Accurate nitrogen (N) diagnosis early in the growing season across diverse soil, weather, and management conditions is challenging. Strategies using multi-source data are hypothesized to perform significantly better than approaches using crop sensing information alone. The objective of this study was to evaluate, across diverse environments, the potential for integrating genetic (e.g., comparative relative maturity and growing degree units to key developmental growth stages), environmental (e.g., soil and weather), and management (e.g., seeding rate, irrigation, previous crop, and preplant N rate) information with active canopy sensor data for improved corn N nutrition index (NNI) prediction using machine learning methods. Thirteen …

Larval Habitats, Species Composition And Distribution Of Malaria Vectors In Regions With Autochthonous And Imported Malaria In Roraima State, Brazil, Nathália Coelho Vargas De Almeida, Jaime Louzada, Maycon Sebastião Alberto Santos Neves, Thiago M. Carvalho, Júlio Castro‑Alves, Teresa Fernandes Silva‑Do‑Nascimento, Ananias A. Escalante, Joseli Oliveira‑Ferreira

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Background: Malaria control requires local action. Assessing the vector diversity and abundance provides information on the local malariogenic potential or risk of transmission. This study aimed to determine the Anopheles species composition, habitats, seasonal occurrence, and distribution in areas with autochthonous and imported malaria cases in Roraima State.

Methods: A longitudinal study was conducted from January 2017 to October 2018, sampling larvae and adult mosquitoes in three municipalities of Roraima State: Boa Vista, Pacaraima and São João da Baliza. These areas have different risks of malaria importation. Four to six mosquito larval habitats were selected for larval sampling …

Applications Of Stretching Technique And Time Window Effects On Ultrasonic Velocity Monitoring In Concrete, Bibo Zhong, Jinying Zhu

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Coda wave interferometry (CWI) has been used to measure the relative wave-velocity change (dV/V) caused by small changes in materials. This study uses the stretching processing technique which has been used for CWI analysis to investigate velocity changes of direct longitudinal (P) wave, direct shear (S) wave, and coda wave in concrete by choosing different time windows of ultrasonic signals. It is found that the obtained wave-velocity change depends on the time window position, because the relative contribution of P wave and S wave is different in each signal window. This paper presents three experimental scenarios of velocity …

Tracking Spatial Regimes In Animal Communities: Implications For Resilience-Based Management, Caleb P. Roberts, Daniel R. Uden, Craig R. Allen, David G. Angeler, Larkin A. Powell, Brady W. Allred, Matthew O. Jones, Jeremy D. Maestas, Dirac L. Twidwell Jr

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Spatial regimes (the spatial extents of ecological states) exhibit strong spatiotemporal order as they expand or contract in response to retreating or encroaching adjacent spatial regimes (e.g., woody plant invasion of grasslands) and human management (e.g., fire treatments). New methods enable tracking spatial regime boundaries via vegetation landcover data, and this approach is being used for strategic management across biomes. A clear advancement would be incorporating animal community data to track spatial regime boundaries alongside vegetation data. In a 41,170-hectare grassland experiencing woody plant encroachment, we test the utility of using animal community data to track spatial regimes via two …

Omega-6 And Omega-3 Fatty Acid-Derived Oxylipins From The Lipoxygenase Pathway In Maternal And Umbilical Cord Plasma At Delivery And Their Relationship With Infant Growth, Maranda Thompson, Arzu Ulu, Ana G. Yuil-Valdes, Maheswari Mukherjee, Melissa K. Thoene, Matthew Van Ormer, Rebecca Slotkowski, Elizabeth Lyden, Ann Anderson-Berry, Corrine K. Hanson, Tara M. Nordgren, Sathish Kumar Natarajan

Department of Nutrition and Health Sciences: Faculty Publications

Omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids are important for neonatal development and health. One mechanism by which omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids exert their effects is through their metabolism into oxylipins and specialized pro-resolving mediators. However, the influence of oxylipins on fetal growth is not well understood. Therefore, the objective of this study was to identify oxylipins present in maternal and umbilical cord plasma and investigate their relationship with infant growth. Liquid chromatography–tandem mass spectrometry was used to quantify oxylipin levels in plasma collected at the time of delivery. Spearman’s correlations highlighted significant correlations between metabolite levels and infant growth. They …

Race, Public Health, And The Epidemic Of Incarceration, Thalia González, Emma Kaeser

Nebraska Law Bulletin (Selected Issues)

COVID-19 is one of the greatest health crises of our time. While increased attention on the adverse individual and population-level effects of the pandemic for incarcerated people has motivated reforms and stimulated scholarly attention on carceral policies as health policies, this is only a first step. In this moment of heightened public consciousness around racism and health across all our public systems, this essay highlights the need for broader, health-justice-centered approaches to mass incarceration along the entire continuum. As new legal reforms emerge in this moment, we challenge the public health law community to work alongside racial justice, economic justice, …

Main-Stem Seepage And Base-Flow Recession Time Constants In The Niobrara National Scenic River Basin, Nebraska, 2016–18, Kellan R. Strauch, Philip J. Soeksen

United States Geological Survey: Water Reports and Publications

The Niobrara River of northern Nebraska is a valuable water resource that sustains irrigated agriculture and recreation, as well as a diverse ecosystem. Large-quantity withdrawals from the source aquifer system have the potential to reduce the flow into the river and to adversely affect the free-flowing condition of the Niobrara National Scenic River (NSR). Therefore, to understand the magnitude and characteristics of those flows, the United States Geological Survey (USGS), in cooperation with the National Park Service, began a study to quantify seepage gains/losses along the eastern half of the Niobrara NSR and to create a map characterizing the base-flow …

Conflict Of Allegiance: Professional Development Challenges In Transforming Science Teachers' Identities And Practices, Elizabeth B. Lewis

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

Case studies of two biology teachers, Cathy and David, from the same minority-majority, urban U.S. high school, provide insights into their instructional practices while they engaged in long-term professional development (PD). Findings suggest why science teachers engaged with PD may, or may not, adopt more adaptive pedagogical approaches in the service of reform-based teaching. Gee’s institution- and affinity-identity constructs were used as analytic lenses regarding teachers’ perceptions of teaching, learning, and agency in the dual contexts of their school’s institutional environment and PD community. Over time, Cathy adopted more inquiry-based instructional practices she learned through PD seminars in building a …

Role Of Three Bird Species In The Life Cycle Of Two Sarcocystis Spp. (Apicomplexa, Sarcocystidae) In The Czech Republic, Ondřej Máca, David González-Solís

Harold W. Manter Laboratory of Parasitology: Library Materials

Birds are one of the groups involved in the development of Sarcocystis Lankester (1882), serving either as intermediate or definitive hosts. The white-tailed sea eagle Haliaeetus albicilla (Linnaeus, 1758), red kite Milvus milvus (Linnaeus, 1758) (both Accipitriformes) and common starlings Sturnus vulgaris Linnaeus, 1758 (Passeriformes) were examined to elucidate their participation in the development of Sarcocystis, as well as to determine the specific identity of the parasites based on morphological and especially molecular analyses. In 2020–2021, one white-tailed eagle, one red kite and five common starlings were parasitologically examined for the presence of Sarcocystis using flotation centrifugation coprological method …

Firearms And Toolmark Error Rates, Susan Vanderplas, Kori Khan, Heike Hofmann, Alicia L. Carriquiry

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

We have outlined several problems with the state of error rate studies on firearm and toolmark examination. Fundamentally, we do not know what the error rate is for these types of comparisons. This is a failure of the scientific study of toolmarks, rather than the examiners themselves, but until this is corrected with multiple studies that meet the criteria described in Section 3, we cannot support the use of this evidence in criminal proceedings.

Effects Of Harvest Season On Carcass Characteristics Of Lambs In The Intermountain West, J. R. Whaley, T. W. Murphy, C. L. Gifford, W. J. Means, J. P. Ritten, H. N. Mckibben, C. M. Page, W. C. Stewart

Roman L. Hruska U.S. Meat Animal Research Center: Reports

Objective: The objectives of this study were to survey characteristics including hot carcass weight (HCW), 12th rib fat thickness (RFT), body-wall thickness (BWT), longissimus muscle area (LMA), USDA yield grade (USDA YG), percentage closely trimmed retail cuts (RC), and calculated yield grade (Calc YG) of lamb carcasses in the Intermountain West to determine the effects of season of slaughter and interrelationships among carcass characteristics.

Materials and Methods: Lamb carcass characteristics were evaluated in 2 commercial Intermountain West processing plants over one year (n = 10,027). Carcasses were evaluated by season: spring (December–April, n = 2,322) and summer (May–August, n …

A Unified Dataset Of Colocated Sewage Pollution, Periphyton, And Benthic Macroinvertebrate Community And Food Web Structure From Lake Baikal (Siberia), Michael F. Meyer, Ted Ozersky, Kara H. Woo, Kirill Shchapov, Aaron W. E. Galloway, Julie B. Schram, Daniel D. Snow, Maxim A. Timofeyev, Dmitry Yu. Karnaukhov, Matthew R. Brousil, Stephanie E. Hampton

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Sewage released from lakeside development can introduce nutrients and micropollutants that can restructure aquatic ecosystems. Lake Baikal, the world’s most ancient, biodiverse, and voluminous freshwater lake, has been experiencing localized sewage pollution from lakeside settlements. Nearby increasing filamentous algal abundance suggests benthic communities are responding to localized pollution. We surveyed 40-km of Lake Baikal’s southwestern shoreline from 19 to 23 August 2015 for sewage indicators, including pharmaceuticals, personal care products, and microplastics, with colocated periphyton, macroinvertebrate, stable isotope, and fatty acid samplings. The data are structured in a tidy format (a tabular arrangement familiar to limnologists) to encourage reuse. Unique …

Tracking Spatial Regimes In Animal Communities: Implications For Resilience-Based Management, C. P. Roberts, D. Uden, C. Allen, D. G. Angler, L. A. Powell, B. Allred, J. D. Maestas, R. Twidwell Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Comparative Geospatial Approach For Agricultural Crops Identification In Interfluvial Plain - A Case Study Of Sahiwal District, Pakistan, Danish Raza, Hong Shu, Sami Ullah Khan, Muhsan Ehsan, Urooj Saeed, Hasnat Aslam, Rana Waqar Aslam, Muhammed Arshad

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Agricultural crop cover identification is a major issue and time-consuming effort to verify the crop type through surveys of the individual field or using prehistoric methods. To establish the scenario of crop identification, the stage of crop provides diverse spatial information about the variety of crops due to its spectral changes. The main aim of this study was to the identify the crop types and their behavior using remote sensing and geographical information system-based approach. Moreover, two main methods were applied to the Sentinel-2 satellite data in which one is random forest based supervised classification and another was Normalize Difference …

Feasibility Assessment On Use Of Proximal Geophysical Sensors To Support Precision Management, Sophia M. Becker, Trenton E. Franz, Olufemi P. Abimbola, Dean D. Steele, J. Paulo Flores, Xinhua Jia, Thomas F. Scherer, Daran Rudnick, Christopher M.U. Neale

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

A study was conducted at three sites in North Dakota to strengthen understanding

of the usefulness of different proximal geophysical data types in agricultural contexts of varying pedology. This study hypothesizes that electromagnetic induction (EMI), gamma-ray sensor (GRS), cosmic-ray neutron sensor (CRNS), and elevation data layers are all useful in multiple linear regression (MLR) predictions of soil properties that meet expert criteria at three agricultural sites. In addition to geophysical data collection with vehicle-mounted sensors, 15 soil samples were collected at each site and analyzed for nine soil properties of interest. A set of model training data was compiled by …

Remotely Detected Aboveground Plant Function Predicts Belowground Processes In Two Prairie Diversity Experiments, Jeannine Cavender-Bares, Anna K. Schweiger, John Gamon, Hamed Gholizadeh, Kimberly Helzer, Cathleen Lapadat, Michael D. Madritch, Philip A. Townsend, Zhihui Wang, Sarah E. Hobbie

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Imaging spectroscopy provides the opportunity to incorporate leaf and canopy optical data into ecological studies, but the extent to which remote sensing of vegetation can enhance the study of belowground processes is not well understood. In terrestrial systems, aboveground and belowground vegetation quantity and quality are coupled, and both influence belowground microbial processes and nutrient cycling. We hypothesized that ecosystem productivity, and the chemical, structural and phylogenetic-functional composition of plant communities would be detectable with remote sensing and could be used to predict belowground plant and soil processes in two grassland biodiversity experiments: the BioDIV experiment at Cedar Creek Ecosystem …

Joint Effects Of Climate, Tree Size, And Year On Annual Tree Growth Derived From Tree-Ring Records Of Ten Globally Distributed Forests, Kristina J. Anderson-Teixeira, Valentine Herrmann, Christine R. Rollinson, Bianca Gonzalez, Erika B. Gonzalez-Akre, Neil Pederson, M. Ross Alexander, Craig D. Allen, Raquel Alfaro-Sánchez, Tala Awada, Jennifer L. Baltzer, Patrick J. Baker, Joseph D. Birch, Sarayudh Bunyavejchewin, Paolo Cherubini, Stuart J. Davies, Cameron Dow, Ryan Helcoski, Jakub Kašpar, James A. Lutz, Ellis Q. Margolis, Justin T. Maxwell, Sean M. Mcmahon, Camille Piponiot, Sabrina E. Russo, Pavel Šamonil, Anastasia E. Sniderhan, Alan J. Tepley, Ivana Vašíčková, Mart Vlam, Pieter A. Zuidema

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Tree rings provide an invaluable long-term record for understanding how climate and other drivers shape tree growth and forest productivity. However, conventional tree-ring analysis methods were not designed to simultaneously test effects of climate, tree size, and other drivers on individual growth. This has limited the potential to test ecologically relevant hypotheses on tree growth sensitivity to environmental drivers and their interactions with tree size. Here, we develop and apply a new method to simultaneously model nonlinear effects of primary climate drivers, reconstructed tree diameter at breast height (DBH), and calendar year in generalized least squares models that account for …

Cubesat Constellations Provide Enhanced Crop Phenology And Digital Agricultural Insights Using Daily Leaf Area Index Retrievals, Kasper Johansen, Matteo G. Ziliani, Rasmus Houborg, Trenton E. Franz, Matthew F. Mccabe

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Satellite remote sensing has great potential to deliver on the promise of a data-driven agricultural revolution, with emerging space-based platforms providing spatiotemporal insights into precisionlevel attributes such as crop water use, vegetation health and condition and crop response to management practices. Using a harmonized collection of high-resolution Planet CubeSat, Sentinel-2, Landsat-8 and additional coarser resolution imagery from MODIS and VIIRS, we exploit a multisatellite data fusion and machine learning approach to deliver a radiometrically calibrated and gap-filled time-series of daily leaf area index (LAI) at an unprecedented spatial resolution of 3 m. The insights available from such high-resolution CubeSat-based LAI …

Phylogenetic Risk Assessment Is Robust For Forecasting The Impact Of Non-Native Insects On North American Trees, D. Uden, A. Mech, N. Havill, A. Schulz, M. Ayres, D. Herms, A. Hoover, K. Gandhi, R. Hufbauer, A. Liebhold, T. Marsico, K. Raffa, K. Thomas, P. Tobin, C. Allen

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Incipient Woody Plant Encroachment Near Native Tree Plantings Signals Heightened Vulnerability For An Intact Grassland Region, D. Fogarty, C. Allen, D. Twidwell Jr.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Accuracies Of Field Co2-H2o Data From Open-Path Eddy-Covariance Flux Systems: Assessment Based On Atmospheric Physics And Biological Environment, X. Zhou, T. Gao, N. Zheng, B. Yang, Y. Li, F. Yu, T. Awada, J. Zhu

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Flowerphenonet: Automated Flower Detection From Multi-View Image Sequences Using Deep Neural Networks For Temporal Plant Phenotyping Analysis, S. D. Choudhury, S. Guha, A. Das, A. K. Das, A. K. Samal, T. N. Awada

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Farmer Perspectives On Collaboration: Evidence From Agricultural Landscapes In Arizona, Nebraska, And Pennsylvania, W. M. Eaton, K. J. Brasier, H. Whitley, B. C. Julia, C. C. Hinrichs, B. Quimby, M. Burbach

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Perceived And Experienced Constraint Negotiation: Do First-Time Elk Hunters Know What They Are In For?, M. P. Gruntorad, C. Chizinski

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.