Digital Commons Network^™

Sex Differences In Lateral Hypothalamic Extracellular Glucose Concentrations During Cumulative Dosing Of Methamphetamine In Rats, Joshua A. Jolton

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The present study experimentally investigated sex differences in lateral hypothalamic glucose concentrations following cumulative dosing of methamphetamine. Male (n=17) and female (n=11) rats were surgically implanted with enzyme-based glucose biosensors in the lateral hypothalamus. Rats then received a saline injection followed by four methamphetamine doses (0.025 mg/kg, 0.05 mg/kg, 0.1 mg/kg, and 0.2 mg/kg) spaced 55 minutes apart. We found that while there was a general decrease in glucose baseline throughout the study for both sexes, the magnitude of the decrease was significantly greater in females compared to males. On a rapid timescale, fixed sex effects existed at the lower …

Relationship Between Gender And Symptom Severity For Youth Who Have Been Sexually Abused, Zoe Erickson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Childhood sexual abuse is a recurring problem which negatively affects thousands of children and adolescents every year. This is a traumatic event which can cause distress for individuals post sexual abuse well into adulthood. Because of this, it is important for practitioners to understand what symptoms could be present post abuse, as well as factors that may impact the presence and severity of these symptoms. Using data from the Project SAFE group treatment program including 126 adolescents aged 12-19, this study aims to further examine how factors such as gender of the individual will affect their symptoms post sexual abuse. …

Remotely Close: An Investigation Of The Student Experience In First-Year Mathematics Courses During The Covid-19 Pandemic, Sawyer Smith

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The realm of education was shaken by the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. It had drastic effects on the way that courses were delivered to students, and the way that students were getting their education at the collegiate level. At the University of Nebraska – Lincoln, the pandemic dramatically changed the way that first-year mathematics courses looked for students. By Spring 2021, students had the opportunity to take their first-year math courses either in-person or virtually. This project sought to identify differences between the two methods of course delivery during the Spring 2021 semester, regarding interaction with peers …

Genomic Analysis Of Metabolic Differences Found In Clostridium Perfringens That Cause Necrotic Enteritis In Poultry, Connor M. Aylor

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Clostridium perfringens is a common member of gut microbiota in healthy animals, but can also be an important pathogen in human and veterinary medicine. It produces several protein toxins that contribute to both histotoxic and enteric diseases in animals. Necrotic enteritis in poultry has been associated with the NetB toxin of C. perfringens; however, this toxin alone is insufficient to cause disease in infected chickens. While considerable research has focused on the presence of toxins and virulence factors, little has been done to assess the function of metabolic factors on the ability of the bacteria to cause disease. …

Cattle Diet Selection During The Growing Season On Upland Sandhills Rangelands, Alejandro Orozco-Lopez

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

The Sandhills is a diverse and complex ecosystem comprised of different topographic positions (i.e. slopes and interdunes) that influence grazing distribution, plant species composition, and cattle diet selection. The first objective of this study was to evaluate how grazing intensity influences species composition on slopes and interdunes on native rangeland within the Hillside pasture (160 ha) at the UNL Gudmundsen Sandhill’s Laboratory (GSL). The second objective of this study was to evaluate forage quality of individual species from three plant functional groups (i.e. warm-season grasses, cool-season grasses, and forbs/shrubs) on native rangeland within the Hillside pasture (160 ha) at GSL. …

Properties Design And Construction For William Shakespeare’S A Midsummer Night’S Dream, Nathan Alexander

Johnny Carson School of Theatre and Film: Theses, Student Research, and Creative Work

In the fall of 2021, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln put on a production of A Midsummer night’s dream. I am Nathan Alexander and I designed and built the properties used in the show. This thesis will discuss my design process as well as my construction process throughout this production. My writing serves as a reference to the collaborative process of theatre, and you will find as you read on that a large amount of my designs did not make it into the final production. This did not discourage me, instead it motivated me to discover what this show wanted to …

Economic Consequences Of The Wolf Comeback In The Western United States, Dana Hoag, Stewart W. Breck, Kevin Crooks, Becky Niemiec

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Gray wolves were eradicated from most of the United States in the 1940’s but have made a comeback in parts of their historic range over the last two decades. First reintroduced into the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and central Idaho in the mid-1990’s, wolves have subsequently dispersed into at least 7 western states. Coloradoans became the latest state to take interest in bolstering wolf populations, as residents passed a ballot initiative in November 2020 to reintroduce a self-sustaining population of gray wolves by the end of 2023. Conflicts between people in rural areas that might incur costs (such as livestock loss) …

Essays On Socioeconomic Shocks And Policies In Agriculture, Wilman Iglesias

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

The three chapters of this doctoral dissertation estimate the responses of agricultural productivity, production value of agriculture, and crop supply to some external shocks and policies. Using unique panel datasets for Colombia and the United States, this research provides new insights regarding the responsiveness of agriculture to some socioeconomic effects and related market policies. Chapter 1 studies the impact of armed conflicts in rural areas on legal agricultural productivity in Colombia by using a production function that includes violence shocks such as the forced intra-national displacement of the rural population from 1995 to 2017. Chapter 2 investigates the effect of …

The Burden Of Giving: Race, Ses, And Nativity Differences In Providing Informal Financial Assistance, Nestor Hernandez

Department of Sociology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Interpersonal relationships within social networks provide resources for individuals to overcome financial hardships and emotional uncertainty. One form of support, giving money to family members and friends (i.e., informal financial assistance), has received little empirical attention, even when it comes at an economic and social cost to the person providing support. Drawing on negative social capital theory, it is hypothesized that racial minorities and immigrants may be more likely to provide monetary support to members of core discussion networks, given the persistent economic embedded in their social networks. The objective of this study is to examine i) racial differences in …

Understanding Boundary Turbulence And Privacy Rules From The Receiver’S Perspective In Mental Illness Disclosures, Ian Maltas

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The present study aims to address a gap in current research focusing on relational outcomes of mental illness disclosures by studying the perspective of people who listen to the disclosures (called “receivers”). This study uses Communication Privacy Management Theory to analyze the process of disclosure, and its main research focus is on motivations for disseminating private information, and how that impacts relationships and privacy rules between co-owners of information. A thematic analysis was conducted to answer this inquiry, and a data conference was held to determine relevant themes in the data. The present study finds that people chose to tell …

Dismantling Binary Assumptions In Sex Estimation: Uplifting Trans And Gender Diverse Identities In Forensic Anthropology, Audrey Holbeck

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

Forensic anthropology is a study within the field of physical anthropology that seeks to apply osteological expertise to legal and criminal situations. One of a forensic anthropologists’ most important jobs is to build a biological profile, consisting of age, biological sex, stature, and ancestry, in correspondence to an unidentified decedent. As we enter the third decade of the 21st century, instances of violence against trans and gender non-conforming individuals are unfortunately prominent, however, there has also been more awareness shed on trans activism. Trans individuals are at a higher risk of being victims of violent crime, and thus, forensic anthropologists …

Evaluation Of Protective Efficacy Of Viral Vector Based Swine Influenza Vaccine And A Method For B Cell Culture For Monoclonal Antibody Generation, Sushmita Kumari

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Influenza A virus of the swine (IAV-S) is an economically important swine pathogen that has the potential to spread to humans, thus posing an ongoing public health concern due to its zoonotic potential. Hemagglutinin (HA), the most abundant viral envelope protein, is known to be the key protective antigen. Anti-HA antibodies alone, have been shown to prevent IAV infection. In this study we evaluated the feasibility of a recombinant tri segmented Pichinde virus (PICV) as a viral vector to deliver IAV-S hemagglutinin antigen in pigs. Four groups of weaned pigs (T01-04) were immunized twice with PBS, rPICV-GFP as a vector …

Essential Oil Yield, Composition, And Bioactivity Of Sagebrush Species In The Bighorn Mountains, Valtcho D. Zheljazkov, Charles L. Cantrell, Ekaterina A. Jeliazkova, Tess Astatkie, Vicki Schlegel

Department of Food Science and Technology: Faculty Publications

Sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) are dominant wild plants in large areas of the U.S., Canada and Mexico, and they include several species and subspecies. The aim was to determine if there are significant differences in essential oil (EO) yield, composition, and biological activity of sagebrush within the Bighorn Mountains, U.S. The EO yield in fresh herbage varied from 0.15 to 1.69% for all species, including 0.25–1.69% in A. tridentata var. vaseyana, 0.64–1.44% in A. tridentata var. tridentata, 1% in A. tridentata var. wyomingensis, 0.8–1.2% in A. longifolia, 0.8–1% in A. cana, and 0.16% in A. ludoviciana. There was …

Understanding Continent-Wide Variation In Vulture Ranging Behavior To Assess Feasibility Of Vulture Safe Zones In Africa: Challenges And Possibilities, Adam Kane, Ara Monadjem, H. K.Ortwin Aschenborn, Keith Bildstein, André Botha, Claire Bracebridge, Evan R. Buechley, Ralph Buij, John P. Davies, Maria Diekmann, Colleen T. Downs, Nina Farwig, Toby Galligan, Gregory Kaltenecker, Chris Kelly, Ryno Kemp, Holger Kolberg, Monique L. Mackenzie, John Mendelsohn, Msafiri Mgumba, Ran Nathan, Aaron Nicholas, Darcy Ogada, Morgan Pfeiffer, W. Louis Phipps, Matteuns D. Pretorius, Sascha Rösner, Dana G. Schabo, Gabriel Lita Shatumbu, Orr Spiegel, Lindy J. Thompson, Jan A. Venter, Munir Virani, Kerri Wolter, Corinne J. Kendall

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Protected areas are intended as tools in reducing threats to wildlife and preserving habitat for their long-term population persistence. Studies on ranging behavior provide insight into the utility of protected areas. Vultures are one of the fastest declining groups of birds globally and are popular subjects for telemetry studies, but continent-wide studies are lacking. To address how vultures use space and identify the areas and location of possible vulture safe zones, we assess home range size and their overlap with protected areas by species, age, breeding status, season, and region using a large continent-wide telemetry datasets that includes 163 individuals …

European Starling Use Of Nest Boxes Relative To Human Disturbance, Bradley Blackwell, Bruce N. Buckingham, Morgan B. Pfeiffer

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

gars and to engine and flight surfaces of moored aircraft. We questioned whether consistent removal of nest material would negatively affect use of a nest site, measured by a reduction in material accumulation. We conducted our study on a 2,200-ha site in Erie County, Ohio, USA (41° 22’ N, 82° 41’ W), from April 15 through June 2, 2020. We used 120 wooden nest boxes on utility poles, protected by an aluminum predator guard below the box. Our treatments included (1) twice weekly, repeated nest material removal (RMR; n = 40 nest boxes); (2) complete nest removal, but only after …

An In-Depth Review Of Alec 480: Senior Capstone In Agricultural & Environmental Sciences Communication (Aesc), Laura E. Young

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio reviews ALEC 480, the undergraduate senior capstone course for Agricultural and Environmental Sciences Communication (AESC) majors in the Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication (ALEC). The goal of ALEC 480 is to provide a culminating experience for AESC majors that incorporates all learning outcomes for the AESC program. During this course, students investigate topics identified by the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources (IANR) as critical to the state of Nebraska. Once identified, students then conduct interviews with researchers and Nebraska Extension educators and write, edit, design, and assist in the production of print and multimedia versions …

Course Portfolio — Hrtm 489: Advanced Event Operations, Kristin Malek

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

No abstract provided.

First Portfolio: Introduction To Psychology (Psych 181), Chelsea A. Witt

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio analyzed student learning in Introduction to Psychology, Psych 181 at the University of Nebraska- Lincoln. This course is often taken by first year students of various backgrounds and majors; this course is a pre-requisite for many other psychology courses. In general, the course covers basic psychological concepts in the realm of biopsychology, developmental psychology, social and personality psychology, cognitive psychology, and clinical psychology. Student enrollment for this section is capped at 200. This portfolio outlines my course goal, objectives, and assessments of those goals. There is also a reflection throughout regarding how well students feel supported and …

Benchmark Portfolio For Asci 451/851: Livestock On Range And Pasture, Fall 2021, Kacie L. Mccarthy

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The aim of this portfolio is twofold: first, the portfolio serves to provide a means for the author to reflect on and improve their approach to teaching an ACE 10 course. The Livestock on Range and Pasture course (ASCI 451/851) serves seniors and graduate students with a major and/or minor in Animal Science, Grazing Livestock Systems, Agronomy and Horticulture, or Range. Since taking over the course, the last two semesters have included students primarily from Animal Science or Agribusiness with a major or minor in Grazing Livestock Systems, respectively. This Peer Review of Teaching project evaluated student feedback from the …

Investigating Student Learning And Assessment Through Group Projects In Cyaf 382: Working With Parents, Patty Kuo

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This course portfolio for CYAF 382: Working with Parents systematically documents its course structure, assessments, and grading. The documentation and reflection process occurred across two consecutive semesters of teaching this course. I analyzed student class performance as a function of peer evaluations and attendance. Students who had fewer unexcused absences had higher exam scores and overall course grades. Interestingly, group project grades were higher when group members had greater variance among individual effort ratings – reflecting an imbalance of group effort. I conclude the portfolio with my reflections derived from both the portfolio process and student evaluations.

Course Portfolio For Cive 361 – Highway Engineering, Libby Jones

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

CIVE 361-Highway Engineering is a required course for all civil engineering majors at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. The course is an introduction to transportation engineering covering vehicle and driver characteristics, geometric design, traffic operations, and transportation planning. The contents of this published course portfolio are for the Spring 2022 semester offering of CIVE 361. This course is used for formative assessment of ABET student outcomes 1, 2, 3 and 7. The alignment of the assessments used in the course and the ABET SOs were examined. Open educational resources (OERs) have been developed for this course. Data collected in 2020 was …

Fdst 132- Practical Applications In Food Science — A Peer Review Of Teaching Project: Benchmark Portfolio, Rossana Villa-Rojas

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

The aim of this course portfolio was to assess improvement of students’ literature research skills and scientific writing after embedding communication lectures, activities and assignments in FDST 132 Practical Applications in Food Science. This is a terminal laboratory course for first year Food Science majors with basic science knowledge. The goal of the course is to allow students to put in practice some basic food science principles and work with their cohort. This portfolio outlines the changes made to this course, the rationale for embedding lectures and assessments in scientific communication. The specific skills and topics I aimed to teach …

The Impact Of Plant Cell Wall Lignin On Energy Utilization In Lactating Jersey Cows, Jason D. Stypinski

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Fiber from forages comprises a significant proportion of dairy cattle rations and by extension, it contributes largely to the energy concentration of the diet. While the proportion of fiber in the diet is important, the composition of fiber is probably more important as the different constituents of this fraction vary in their contributions to the nutritive value of the feed. Lignin has been described as an important factor limiting the digestion of NDF, reducing intake, and compromising milk production. Although lignin’s effects on these responses have been well characterized, the literature lacks data on the use of indirect calorimetry to …

Annotating Gene Expression And Regulatory Elements In Tissues From Healthy Thoroughbred Horses And Identifying Candidate Mutations Associated With Perosomus Elumbis In An Angus Calf, Alexa Mckenna Barber

Department of Animal Science: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Genome annotation has a direct impact on the success of genomic studies. Transcriptome analyses and chromatin immunoprecipitation and sequencing (ChIP-seq) have been used to functionally annotate genomes. These methods can identify protein-coding genes, non-coding transcripts, and cis-regulatory elements across the genome. The primary objective of the first study was to functionally annotate the equine genome through the assessment of nine tissues: adipose, brain, heart, lamina, liver, lung, skeletal, muscle, testis, and ovary. In the first project, 150 bp, paired-end RNA sequencing (RNA-seq) libraries were generated in stallion tissues and compared to previously generated mare RNA-seq libraries to quantify variation in …

Effects Of Socioeconomic Status On Consumer Behavior And Attitudes Towards A Brand’S Image, Abbey Haymond

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

This research seeks to understand more about the effects of socioeconomic background on consumer behavior and its impact on the perception of brand images. Data from people of different SES were compared to understand how they view advertisements intended for different audiences and their corresponding effects. It was conducted by sending out a confidential, voluntary survey to a convenience sample targeting 100 consumers. Consumers were asked to rate statements, on a scale of one to five, for each of the research questions to assess specific aspects of their consumer attitudes and behaviors. The high SES group has a higher average …

First Record Of Agrilus Cliftoni Knull And Anthaxia Viridifrons Gory (Coleoptera: Buprestidae) In Wisconsin, Lawrence Barringer

Insecta Mundi

Two species of Coleoptera: Buprestidae are reported from Wisconsin for the first time: Agrilus cliftoni Knull and Anthaxia viridifrons Gory. Trapping, distribution information, and additional records are also discussed.

Jewel beetles such as emerald ash borer (EAB) (Agrilus planipennis Fairmaire), continue to be of interest as estab­lished pests (USDA APHIS 2021). Survey programs allow for the detection of EAB as it continues to spread across North America while monitoring for other taxa not yet present in the eastern United States such as the goldspot­ted oak borer (Agrilus. auroguttatus Schaeffer) and oak splendor beetle Agrilus biguttatus Fabricius (CERIS …

Megalurothrips Usitatus Bagnall (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), First Record Of An Important New Pest In Honduras, Jesus Orozco

Insecta Mundi

Megalurothrips usitatus Bagnall (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), an invasive and highly destructive pest of beans, is recorded for the first time for Honduras. The species is illustrated to aid in its identification. Specimens were collected from Phaseolus vulgaris L. (common bean), Crotalaria juncea L. (sunn hemp), and Melampodium divaricatum (Rich.) DC (butter daisy).

Common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris L., (Fabaceae)), are a staple food source in Honduran cuisine, as they are eaten at least once daily by the majority of the population. This crop is a large part of the economy of the country and the only source of income for many …

Microbiome Variation Across Populations Of Desert Halophyte Zygophyllum Qatarensis, Abdul Latif Khan, Lucas Dantas Lopes, Saqib Bilal, Sajjad Asaf, Kerri M. Crawford, Venkatesh Balan, Ahmed Al-Rawahi, Ahmed Al-Harrasi, Daniel P. Schachtman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Microbial symbionts play a significant role in plant health and stress tolerance. However, few studies exist that address rare species of core-microbiome function during abiotic stress. In the current study, we compared the microbiome composition of succulent dwarf shrub halophyte Zygophyllum qatarensis Hadidi across desert populations. The results showed that rhizospheric and endosphere microbiome greatly varied due to soil texture (sandy and gravel). No specific bacterial amplicon sequence variants were observed in the core-microbiome of bulk soil and rhizosphere, however, bacterial genus Alcaligenes and fungal genus Acidea were abundantly distributed across root and shoot endospheres. We also analyzed major nutrients …

Impact Of The Timing And Use Of An Insecticide On Arthropods In Cover-Crop-Corn Systems, Gabriela Inveninato Carmona, Emily Robinson, Julia Nogueira Duarte Campos, Anthony Justin Mcmechan

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Cover crops provide a habitat for pests and beneficial arthropods. Unexpected pest pressure in a cover-crop-to-corn system can occur and result in increased use of insecticides. Eight site-years of on-farm field studies were conducted in 2019, 2020, and 2021. The objective of the study was to evaluate the impact of insecticide timing relative to cover-crop termination on arthropod activity in a cover-crop-to-corn system. The treatments consisted of (i) glyphosate to terminate the cover crop, (ii) glyphosate and pyrethroid tank mix to terminate the cover crop, and (iii) glyphosate to terminate the cover crop and pyrethroid application 25 days after the …

Microbiome Variation Across Populations Of Desert Halophyte Zygophyllum Qatarensis, Abdul Latif Khan, Lucas Dantas Lopes, Saqib Bilal, Sajjad Asaf, Kerri M. Crawford, Venkatesh Balan, Ahmed Al-Rawahi, Ahmed Al-Harrasi, Daniel P. Schachtman

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Microbial symbionts play a significant role in plant health and stress tolerance. However, few studies exist that address rare species of core-microbiome function during abiotic stress. In the current study, we compared the microbiome composition of succulent dwarf shrub halophyte Zygophyllum qatarensis Hadidi across desert populations. The results showed that rhizospheric and endosphere microbiome greatly varied due to soil texture (sandy and gravel). No specific bacterial amplicon sequence variants were observed in the core-microbiome of bulk soil and rhizosphere, however, bacterial genus Alcaligenes and fungal genus Acidea were abundantly distributed across root and shoot endospheres. We also analyzed major nutrients …