Digital Commons Network^™

Identification Of Contributing Factors For Driver’S Perceptual Bias Of Aggressive Driving In China, Yongfeng Ma, Xin Gu, Ya'nan Yu, Aemal Khattak, Shuyan Chen, Kun Tang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Aggressive driving is common across the world. While most aggressive driving is conscious, some aggressive driving behavior may be unconscious on part of motor vehicle drivers. Perceptual bias of aggressive driving behavior is one of the main causes of traffic accidents. This paper focuses on identifying impact factors related to aggressive driving perceptual bias. Questionnaire data from 690 drivers, collected from a drivers’ retraining course administered by the Traffic Management Bureau in Nanjing, China, were used to collect drivers’ socioeconomic characteristics, personality traits, and external environment data. Actual penalty points were considered as an objective indicator and Gaussian mixture model …

Natural Hazards Perspectives On Integrated, Coordinated, Open, Networked (Icon) Science, Sanjib Sharma, Kshitij Dahal, Lorenzo Nava, Manish Raj Gouli, Rocky Talchabhadel, Jeeban Panthi, Tirthankar Roy, Ganesh R. Ghimire

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

This article is about the state of ICON principles Goldman et al. (2021), https://doi. org/10.1029/2021EO153180 in natural hazards and a discussion on the opportunities and challenges of adopting them. Natural hazards pose risks to society, infrastructure, and the environment. Hazard interactions and their cascading phenomena in space and time can further intensify the impacts. Natural hazards’ risks are expected to increase in the future due to environmental, demographic, and socioeconomic changes. It is important to quantify and effectively communicate risks to inform the design and implementation of risk mitigation and adaptation strategies. Multihazard multisector risk management poses several nontrivial challenges, …

Pectin Modified Metal Nanoparticles And Their Application In Property Modification Of Biosensors, Meena Nemiwal, Tian C. Zhang, Dinesh Kumar

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Pectin is a structural anionic heteropolysaccharide and abundantly found in the cell wall of terrestrial trees and plants. It exhibits several advantageous properties such as non-toxicity, cheap, biodegradable, biocompatible, abundant, flexible, etc. Functional groups like carboxylic acid and hydroxyl make pectin suitable to be covalently bonded with other biomolecules and proteins. Based on these properties, pectin is being extensively employed to encapsulate/coat metal nanoparticles (MNPs) to inhibit their aggregation and enhancing the suitability of MNPs for a wide range of applications in healthcare like drug delivery, antimicrobial activity, antioxidant etc. Another important application of pectin is to enhance the electrochemical …

Single-Step Hydrothermal Synthesis Of Biochar From H3po4-Activated Lettucewaste For Efficient Adsorption Of Cd(Ii) In Aqueous Solution, Quyun Chen, Tian C. Zhang, Like Ouyang, Shaojun Yuan

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Developing an ideal and cheap adsorbent for adsorbing heavy metals from aqueous solution has been urgently need. In this study, a novel, effective and low-cost method was developed to prepare the biochar from lettuce waste with H₃PO₄ as an acidic activation agent at a low-temperature (circa 200°C) hydrothermal carbonization process. A batch adsorption experiment demonstrated that the biochar reaches the adsorption equilibrium within 30 min, and the optimal adsorption capacity of Cd(II) is 195.8 mg⋅g^-1at solution pH 6.0, which is significantly improved from circa 20.5 mg⋅g^-1 of the original biochar without activator. The fitting …

Combining Electrochemical Nitrate Reduction And Anammox For Treatment Of Nitrate-Rich Wastewater: A Short Review, Xinyi Zou, Chongjun Chen, Changhong Wang, Qun Zhang, Zhuowei Yu, Haiping Wu, Chao Zhuo, Tian C. Zhang

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Treatment of nitrate-rich wastewater is important but challenging for the conventional biological denitrification process. Here, we propose combining the electrochemical reduction and anaerobic ammonium oxidation (anammox) processes together for treatment of nitrate-rich wastewater. This article reviews the mechanism and current research status of electrochemical reduction of nitrate to ammonium as well as the mechanism and applicability of the anammox process. This article discusses the principles, superiorities, and challenges of this combined process. The feasibility of the combined process depends on the efficiency of electrochemical nitrate reduction to ammonium and the conditions in the anammox process to use the reduced ammonium …

Visual Growth Tracking For Automated Leaf Stage Monitoring Based On Image Sequence Analysis, Srinidhi Bashyam, Sruti Das Choudhury, Ashok Samal, Tala Awada

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

In this paper, we define a new problem domain, called visual growth tracking, to track different parts of an object that grow non-uniformly over space and time for application in image- based plant phenotyping. The paper introduces a novel method to reliably detect and track individual leaves of a maize plant based on a graph theoretic approach for automated leaf stage monitoring. The method has four phases: optimal view selection, plant architecture determination, leaf tracking, and generation of a leaf status report. The method accepts an image sequence of a plant as the input and automatically generates a leaf status …

Annual Report 2020 Conservation And Survey Division, Robert Matthew Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

The Conservation and Survey Division (Nebraska Geological Survey), the natural resource survey component of the School of Natural Resources, is a unique, multi-disciplinary research, service and data-collection organization established by state statute in 1921.

The Division's mission is to investigate and record information about Nebraska's geologic history, its rock and mineral resources, the quantity and quality of its water resources, land cover and other aspects of its geography, as well as the nature, distribution and uses of its soils.

Coping With Covid‑19: An Examination Of The Role Of (Non) Religiousness/(Non)Spirituality, Dena Abbott, Andrew S. Franks

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Psychological distress and coping strategies employed during collective trauma events may vary for theists and atheists, as well as others along the (non)religious spectrum. The present study explored these differences via data collected from a US-based sample during the COVID-19 pandemic. Statistical models suggested relationships between maladaptive coping and distress for all participants and potential differences in coping and, in turn, distress between participants high and low in institutional religiousness and individual spirituality. Additionally, all participants, though especially nonreligious participants, appeared less able to engage in adaptive emotion-focused coping strategies. Implications for future research are provided.

Providing Sexuality Training For Psychologists: The Role Of Predoctoral Internship Sites, Dena M. Abbott, Debra Mollen, Elyxcus J. Anaya, Theodore R. Burnes, Madeline M. Jones, Victoria A. Rukus

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Sexuality education positively impacts health service psychologists’ ability to address sexuality, a vital component of overall health and well-being. There is little information about the integration of sexuality into the applied, fieldwork components of psychologists’ training. We surveyed 139 representatives of APA-accredited doctoral internship programs to assess sexuality content during internship training. Participants completed a survey assessing content integration of 12 domains specific to human sexuality. The most endorsed training related to sexual orientation and gender identity, sexual behavior, sexual ethics, and sex therapy were infrequent in the internship training curriculum. Implications for research, practice, training, supervision, and advocacy are …

Psychotherapy With Nonreligious Clients: A Relational-Cultural Approach, Dena M. Abbott

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

In extant literature related to the integration of religion/spirituality (R/S) in psychotherapy, nonreligious clients are often excluded or briefly mentioned. Further, few theoretical frameworks supporting recommendations for intervention with or for conceptualization of nonreligious clients’ unique experiences and presenting concerns are offered. The present article summarizes psychotherapy-relevant scholarship related to nonreligious people in the United States and offers recommendations for intervention using a Relational-Cultural Therapy approach. In addition to increasing awareness of systemic oppression, resilience, and potential clinical needs of nonreligious clients, the article proposes concrete strategies for addressing structural inequity that disadvantages nonreligious people through conceptualization of such experiences …

Patch Utilization And Flower Visitations By Wild Bees In A Honey Bee-Dominated, Grassland Landscape, Clint R. V. Otto, Larissa L. Bailey, Autumn H. Smart

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Understanding habitat needs and patch utilization of wild and managed bees has been identified as a national research priority in the United States. We used occupancy models to investigate patterns of bee use across 1030 transects spanning a gradient of floral resource abundance and richness and distance from apiaries in the Prairie Pothole Region (PPR) of the United States. Estimates of transect use by honey bees were nearly 1.0 during our 3.5-month sampling period, suggesting honey bees were nearly ubiquitous across transects. Wild bees more frequently used transects with higher flower richness and more abundant flowers; however, the effect size …

Temperamental Constellations And School Readiness: A Multivariate Approach, Andrew S. White, Kate M. Sirota, Scott R. Frohn, Sarah E. Swenson, Kathleen Moritz Rudasill

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

This study uses canonical correlation analyses to explore the relationship between mul- tiple predictors of school readiness (i.e., academic readiness, social readiness, and teacher-child relationship) and multiple temperamental traits using data from the second wave (age 54 months, n = 1226) of the longitudinal Study of Early Child Care and Youth Development (SECCYD; NICHD ECCRN 1993). This longitudinal study collected data on a large cohort of children and their families from birth through age 15. For academic readiness, only one temperamental constellation emerged, representing the construct of effortful control (i.e., high attentional focusing, high inhibitory con- trol). For peer interactions, …

Risk Factors For Bullying Victimization In Children With Neurofibromatosis Type 1 (Nf1), Peter L. Stavinoha, Cody Solesbee, Susan M. Swearer Napolitano, Steven Svoboda, Laura J. Kless, Alice Ann Holland

Department of Educational Psychology: Faculty Publications

Neurofibromatosis type 1 (NF1) is an autosomal disorder associated with numerous physical stigmata. Children with NF1 are at known risk for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), academic struggles, and significant social difficulties and adverse social outcomes, including bullying victimization. The primary aim of this study was to identify risk factors associated with bullying victimization in children with NF1 to better inform clinicians regarding targets for prevention and clinical intervention. Children and a parent completed questionnaires assessing the bully victim status, and parents completed a measure of ADHD symptoms. Analyses were completed separately for parent-reported victimization of the child and the child’s self-report …

Quaring Sorority Life: Identity Negotiation Of Queer Women Of Color In Culturally-Based Sororities, Antonio Duran, Crystal E. Garcia

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Using quare theory as a theoretical framework and critical narrative inquiry as a methodology, researchers centered the stories of 20 queer Women of Color affiliated with culturally based sororities. Participants spoke about how they perceived gendered and heterosexist norms in their sororities and how they negotiated their identities in these environments. Findings reveal that queer Women of Color made crucial decisions regarding their identity negotiation while in the process of joining their organizations. Moreover, some participants articulated how, once affiliated, they strategically minimized attention to their sexuality and gender, while others asserted these identities to disrupt hegemonic norms.

Aligning Student Affairs Practice With Espoused Commitments To Equity, Diversity, And Inclusion, Crystal Eufemia Garcia, William Walker, Dawn Morgan, Yuwei Shi

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Using a critical qualitative approach, we explored ways student affairs professionals at predominantly white institutions within the South made sense of and enacted commitments to equity, diversity, and inclusion. Findings show that participants rarely engaged in direct conversations around diversity, equity, and inclusion with their colleagues and often conflated these terms. Those who engaged in equity work were often driven by their own salient identities, yet they also shared ways their efforts were constrained by institutional policies. The study offers implications for practice for student affairs professionals, professional preparation programs, and higher education institutions.

Owning Educational Change In Korean Schools: Three Driving Forces Behind Sustainable Change, Taeyeon Kim, Minseok Yang, Sunbin Lim

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

In this essay, we discuss how the COVID-19 pandemic drove key changes in schooling and what forces can sustain these changes. Responding to the argument that COVID-19-driven changes may not be sustainable, this essay offers a counter narrative from the Korean context, in which educators re-visited existing school systems and re-constructed policies and teaching practices to fill the educational vacuum caused by the pandemic. This essay specifically builds on interviews conducted with Korean educators throughout the 2020 school year during COVID-19. First, we discuss ownership of educational change as reflected in educators’ narratives. We then explore three driving forces behind …

Collective Impact In Rural Places, Sarah Zuckerman

Department of Educational Administration: Faculty Publications

Complex social problems such as teen pregnancy, youth suicide, student achievement, and foster care placement result from the interplay of problems in both the public and private sectors. Isolated approaches by single organizations in individual sectors, in general, have failed to “move the needle” on many of these problems. Such “wicked” problems are defined by complexity, interrelatedness, unpredictability, open-ended, intractable, and often subjected to competing values (Head & Alford, 2015). As such, wicked problems do not respond to technical, readymade solutions. Instead, they require adaptive and iterative approaches to learning about the causes of complex challenges, generating solutions, measuring the …

Evidence On The Effectiveness Of Small Unmanned Aircraft Systems (Suas) As A Survey Tool For North American Terrestrial, Vertebrate Animals: A Systematic Map Protocol, Jared A. Elmore, Michael F. Curran, Kristine O. Evans, Sathishkumar Samiappan, Meilun Zhou, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Bradley F. Blackwell, Raymond B. Iglay

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Background: Small unmanned aircraft systems (sUAS) are replacing or supplementing manned aircraft and groundbased surveys in many animal monitoring situations due to better coverage at finer spatial and temporal resolutions, access, cost, bias, impacts, safety, efficiency, and logistical benefits. Various sUAS models and sensors are available with varying features and usefulness depending on survey goals. However, justification for selection of sUAS and sensors are not typically offered in published literature and existing reviews do not adequately cover past and current sUAS applications for animal monitoring nor their associated sUAS model and sensor technologies, taxonomic and geographic scope, flight conditions and …

Recolonizing Carnivores: Is Cougar Predation Behaviorally Mediated By Bears?, Kristin N. Engebretsen, Jon P. Beckmann, Carl W. Lackey, Alyson M. Andreasen, Cody Schroeder, Pat Jackson, Julie K. Young

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Conservation and management efforts have resulted in population increases and range expansions for some apex predators, potentially changing trophic cascades and foraging behavior. Changes in sympatric carnivore and dominant scavenger populations provide opportunities to assess how carnivores affect one another. Cougars (Puma concolor) were the apex predator in the Great Basin of Nevada, USA, for over 80 years. Black bears (Ursus americanus) have recently recolonized the area and are known to heavily scavenge on cougar kills. To evaluate the impacts of sympatric, recolonizing bears on cougar foraging behavior in the Great Basin, we investigated kill sites of 31 cougars between …

Reconstruction Of Ancient Microbial Genomes From The Human Gut, M. C. Wibowo, Z. Yang, M. Borry, A. Hubner, K. D. Huang, B. T. Tierney, S. Zimmerman, F. Barajas-Olmos, C. Contreras-Cubas, H. Garcia-Ortiz, A. Martinez-Hernandez, J. M. Luber, K. Reinhard Et Al.

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Social Connectedness And Negative Affect Uniquely Explain Individual Differences In Response To Emotional Ambiguity, Maital Neta, Rebecca L. Brock

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

Negativity bias is not only central to mood and anxiety disorders, but can powerfully impact our decision-making across domains (e.g., financial, medical, social). This project builds on previous work examining negativity bias using dual-valence ambiguity. Specifically, although some facial expressions have a relatively clear negative (angry) or positive valence (happy), surprised expressions are interpreted negatively by some and positively by others, providing insight into one’s valence bias. Here, we examine putative sources of variability that distinguish individuals with a more negative versus positive valence bias using structural equation modeling. Our model reveals that one’s propensity toward negativity (operationalized as temperamental …

Household Smoke-Exposure Risks Associated With Cooking Fuels And Cooking Places In Tanzania: A Cross-Sectional Analysis Of Demographic And Health Survey Data, Mazbahul G. Ahamad, Fahian Tanin, Nawaraji Shrestha

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Household smoke-exposure risk (SER) can be defined through the assessment of cooking fuels (smoke and no smoke-producing) and cooking places (indoor and outdoor) related information, which represent different levels of household air pollution. This study aimed to explore the prevalence and geographical variations in smoke-exposure risks (SERs) associated with indoor and outdoor cooking practices and use of smoke-producing and non-smoke-producing cooking fuels in Tanzania. We further investigated the social and spatial features associated with household SERs. We defined an indicator variable, the household SER, using country-level, cross-sectional data on cooking fuels and cooking places obtained from the 2015–2016 Tanzania Demographic …

Officially Confirmed Covid-19 And Unreported Covid-19–Like Illness Death Counts: An Assessment Of Reporting Discrepancy In Bangladesh, Mazbahul G. Ahamad, Fahian Tanin, Byomkesh Talukder, Monir Ahmed

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Reporting discrepancies between officially confirmed COVID-19 death counts and unreported COVID- 19–like illness (CLI) death counts have been evident across the world, including Bangladesh. Publicly available data were used to explore the differences between confirmed COVID-19 death counts and deaths with possible COVID-19 symptoms between March 2, 2020 and August 22, 2020. Unreported CLI death counts totaled more than half of the confirmed COVID-19 death counts during the study period. However, the reporting authority did not consider CLI deaths, which might produce incomplete and unreliable COVID-19 data and respective mortality rates. All deaths with possible COVID-19 symptoms need to be …

Does Biochar Improve All Soil Ecosystem Services?, Humberto Blanco-Canqui

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Biochar is considered to sequester C and deliver other soil ecosystem services, but an overview that synthesizes the current knowledge of biochar implications on all essential soil ecosystem services is difficult to find in the ample biochar literature. Most previous research and review articles on this topic focused on a single ecosystem service and did not integrate all essential soil ecosystem services. This overview paper (1) synthesizes the impacts of biochar on water and wind erosion, C sequestration, soil water, nutrient leaching, soil fertility, crop yields, and other soil ecosystem services based on published literature and (2) highlights remaining research …

Intervention Of Climate-Smart Practices In Wheat Under Rice-Wheat Cropping System In Nepal, Janma Jaya Gairhe, Mandeep Adhikari, Deepak Ghimire, Arun Khatri-Chhetri, Dinesh Panday

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Besides a proper agronomic management followed by Nepalese farmers, wheat (Triticum aestivum L.) production has been severely affected by changing climate. There are many interventions, including climate-smart practices, to cope with this situation and possibly enhance crop and soil productivity. Field experiments were set up in a randomized complete block design with six treatments (TRT) with four replications in three locations (LOC) during wheat-growing seasons in Nepal from 2014 to 2016. Treatments included (i) Controlled Practice (CP), (ii) Improved Low (IL), (iii) Improved High (IH), (iv) Climate Smart Agriculture Low (CSAL), (v) Climate Smart Agriculture Medium (CSAM), and (vi) …

Responses Of Soil Surface Greenhouse Gas Emissions To Nitrogen And Sulfur Fertilizer Rates To Brassica Carinata Grown As A Bio-Jet Fuel, Dwarika Bhattarai, Gandura O. Abagandura, Thandiwe Nleya, Sandeep Kumar

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Carinata (Brassica carinata A. Braun), a non-food oilseed crop and an alternative bio-jet fuel feedstock, has received attention for its potential as a low-input option for production in the semi-arid region of the Northern Great Plains of the United States. Research addressing the impacts of nitrogen (N) and sulfur (S) fertilizers on soils and greenhouse gas (GHG; CO2, N2O, and CH4) emissions from carinata production are limited. Thus, objective of this study was to evaluate the impact of different rates of N and S fertilizers applied to carinata on soil properties and GHG emissions. Field experiments were conducted in 2017 …

Potential Amendments For Improving Productivity Of Low Carbon Semiarid Soil, Bijesh Maharjan, Dinesh Panday, Humberto Blanco-Canqui, Maysoon M. Mikha

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Applying soil amendments with high C content can potentially improve soil properties and increase crop yields. The objective of this 3-yr field study was to evaluate the effects of organic amendments on soil organic C (SOC), chemical properties, crop nutrient uptake, and crop yields in a low C sandy loam soil near Scottsbluff, NE. The field was planted to dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) in 2017, maize (Zea mays L.) in 2018, and sugar beet (Beta vulgaris L.) in 2019. Char at 22.3, 44.6, 66.9, 89.2, and 133.8 Mg ha^–1; biochar at 5.6 and 11.2 …

Improving Publicly Available Corn Nitrogen Rate Recommendation Tools With Soil And Weather Measurements, Curtis J. Ransom, Newell R. Kitchen, John E. Sawyer, James J. Camberato, Paul R. Carter, Richard Ferguson, Fabián G. Fernández, David W. Franzen, Carrie A.M. Laboski, D. Brenton Myers, Emerson D. Nafziger, John F. Shanahan

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Improving corn (Zea mays L.) N fertilizer rate recommendation tools is necessary for improving farmers’ profits and minimizing N pollution. Research has repeatedly shown that weather and soil factors influence available N and crop N need. Adjusting available corn N recommendation tools with soil and weather measurements could improve farmers’ ability to manage N. The aim of this research was to improve publicly available N recommendation tools with site-specific soil and weather measurements. Information from49 site-years ofNresponse trials in theU.S. Midwest was used to evaluate 21 rate recommendation tools for a single (at-planting) and split (at-planting + sidedress) N …

Adaptation And Forage Productivity Of Cool-Season Grasses In The Central Usa, Kenneth P. Vogel, Robert B. Mitchell

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Cool-season grass species (18) and cultivars (85) were evaluated for use in seeded grasslands in the tallgrass prairie and shortgrass steppe ecoregions of the central United States at the test locations of Ithaca and Sidney, NE, respectively. Both native and introduced grasses were evaluated in sward trails. Significant differences existed among species and cultivars for all traits evaluated except for in vitro dry matter digestibility (IVDMD) among cultivars within species at Sidney. The grasses that had the best establishment, persistence, and forage yields in the Ithaca trial were introduced wheatgrass (Thinopyrum) and bromegrass (Bromus) species. At …

Guiding Principles For Using Satellite-Derived Maps In Rangeland Management, Brady W. Allred, Megan K. Creutzburg, John C. Carlson, Christopher J. Cole, Colin M. Dovichin, Michael C. Duniway, Matthew O. Jones, Jeremy D. Maestas, David E. Naugle, Travis W. Naumen, Gregory S. Okin, Matthew C. Reeves, Matthew Rigge, Shannon L. Savage, Dirac Twidwell, Daniel R. Uden, Bo Zhou

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.