Digital Commons Network^™

Evaluating New Protein Sources For Development Of A Deer Repellent Product, Bruce A. Kimball, Kelly R. Perry

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Several protein sources were tested as deer repellents with captive deer. Black-tailed deer were offered Western redcedar seedlings treated with corn gluten meal, feather meal, poultry blood, hydrolyzed casein, or a control (latex sticker used for treatment proteins). After 37 days, feather meal and hydrolyzed casein provided equivalent protection against browse damage (only 23% of seedlings significantly browsed). Poultry blood provided less browse protection (44% browsed), while browse damage to seedlings treated with corn gluten meal (73% browsed) was not statistically different than the control (100% browsed). Based on the efficacy of feather meal and its low material cost, this …

Evaluation Of Attractants To Improve Trapping Success Of Nutria On Louisiana Coastal Marsh, Susan Jojola, Gary W. Witmer, Patrick Burke

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Nutria (Myocastor coypus) are an important part of the Louisiana (USA) fur industry, but high densities of nutria cause extensive damage to coastal marsh ecosystems. Hence, there is a need to develop improved methods for targeted management of nutria. We screened 14 olfactory cues as potential lures for nutria, first in controlled settings and then in the field, to see if nutria capture rates using foothold traps would increase. In Y-maze trials, nutria most frequently selected olfactory cues of a synthetic formulation of nutria anal-gland secretion and nutria fur extract. We examined the 3 most selected attractants in …

Experimental Inoculation Of Coyotes With Mycobacterium Bovis Susceptibility And Shedding, Shylo R. Johnson, Mike R. Dunbar, Lorene Martinez, Robert L. Jones, Richard Bowen, Paul Gordy

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Several wildlife species have tested positive for bovine tuberculosis in Michigan and may potentially transmit the disease to other animals. Coyotes have the highest known prevalence in the endemic area and thus, our objective was to investigate the shedding of Mycobacterium bovis by coyotes. Four coyotes were orally inoculated with 1 ml of 1 x 10⁵ CFU/ml of M. bovis. Oral and nasal swabs, and feces were collected regularly and tested by culture. Fecal samples were also tested by exposing guinea pigs to the coyotes' feces. All animals were necropsied to determine if infection occurred. All swabs, feces …

White-Tailed Deer Herbivory And Timber Harvesting Rates: Implications For Regeneration Success, Brad F. Miller, Tyler A. Campbell, Benjamin R. Laseter, W. Mark Ford, Karl V. Miller

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Herbivory by white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) can affect forest regeneration. Typical measures to ensure forest regeneration have included physical barriers or direct manipulation of deer densities. However, altering silvicultural practices to provide abundant deer forage has not been tested thoroughly. We examined browse species preferences and changes in herbivory rates in 1–6 year old regeneration areas from 2001 to 2004 in the central Appalachians on the MeadWestvaco Wildlife and Ecosystem Research Forest in West Virginia. Woody vegetation reached the maximum plot coverage by the 4th growing season. However, the establishment of less abundant woody species, such as northern …

Physiological Stress Response Of Captive White-Tailed Deer To Video Collars, Remington Moll, Joshua J. Millspaugh, Jeff Beringer, Joel Sartwell, Rami Woods, Kurt C. Vercauteren

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Animal-borne video and environmental data collection systems (AVEDs) are an advanced form of biotelemetry that combines video with other sensors. As a proxy for physiological stress, we assessed fecal glucocorticoid metabolite (FGM) excretion in 7 white-tailed deer (Odocoileus virginianus) fitted with AVED dummy collars; 9 additional deer served as controls. We collected fecal samples over 3 2-week periods: pretreatment, treatment, and post-treatment periods. There were no differences in FGMs across time periods (F_2,218 = 1.94, P = 0.147) and no difference between FGMs of control and treatment individuals (F_1,14 = 0.72, P = 0.411). Fecal glucocorticoid …

Options For The Control Of Disease 3: Targeting The Environment, Alastair Ward, Kurt C. Vercauteren, W. David Walter, Emmanuellle Gilot-Fromont, Sophie Rossi, Gareth Edwards- Jones, Mark S. Lambert, Michael R. Hutchings, Richard J. Delahay

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Management of wildlife disease can be targeted at pathogens, hosts or vector populations, but may also focus on the environment. As constituent elements of any given environment, resident wildlife populations, and their pathogens, may be profoundly influenced by environmental change, in terms of their abundance, distribution and behavior. Hence, it is reasonable to expect that incorporation of environmental manipulation into a program to control wildlife diseases may potentially result in outcomes as effective as direct intervention aimed at hosts, pathogens and vectors.

New National Extension Site Has Information On Dealing With Economic Crisis, Elbert Dickey, Dan Moser

Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources: News Releases

Lincoln, Ne & the nation's land-grant universities, including the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, have gathered myriad resources on-line to help Americans deal with the financial crisis.

The site is available through eXtension.org, via a link at www.extension.unl.edu (http://www.extension.unl.edu/).

Elbert Dickey, dean and director of UNL Extension, said the site is an excellent example of what eXtension does best.

"UNL Extension and our counterparts across the country created eXtension for just this purpose to get the 'best of the best' research-based, unbiased information from all over the U.S. into the hands of Americans who need it," Dickey said. "All Americans are struggling …

Reducing The Public Health Impact Of Bovine Tuberculosis By Controlling Disease Transmission Between Cattle And White-Tailed Deer In Northwestern Minnesota, Barbara Knust

Michigan Bovine Tuberculosis Bibliography and Database

Bovine tuberculosis, caused by infection with Mycobacterium bovis, is a re-emerging zoonotic disease. It has staged a comeback by establishing infections in wildlife and cattle, creating the potential for human disease in locations where it was thought to be under control. In northwestern Minnesota, infected cattle and white-tailed deer were first discovered in 2005. A major bovine tuberculosis eradication campaign is underway in the state, with multiple efforts employed to control M. bovis infection in both cattle and deer populations. In order to effectively eradicate bovine tuberculosis in Minnesota, there is a need for better understanding of the …

Assessment Of Omega-3 Fatty Acid Food Intakes And Their Association With Socioeconomic Status And Acculturation In Midwestern Latinas, Karina R. Lora

College of Education and Human Sciences: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The purpose of this study was to assess the validity and reliability of a culturally appropriate food frequency questionnaire (FFQ) to measure total omega-3 (n-3) fatty acid, ALA, EPA and DHA intakes of Midwestern Latinas. In addition, the study examined the association of age, socioeconomic status (SES) and acculturation with intake of n-3 fatty acids. The n-3 FFQ was developed from preliminary interviews, analyzed for content validity and pilot tested. The final instrument containing 209 items (15 culturally-specific dishes) was tested with 162 first-generation Latinas. One-on-one interviews in Spanish were conducted to validate the FFQ. In addition, women provided sociodemographic …

Use Of A Candidate Gene Array To Delineate Gene Expression Patterns In Cattle Selected For Resistance Or Susceptibility To Intestinal Nematodes, Ricardo N. Araujo, Terezinha Padilha, Dante Zarlenga, Tad Sonstegard, Erin E. Connor, Curt Van Tassel, Walter S. Lima, Evaldo Nascimento, Louis C. Gasbarre

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

In the present study, we use microarray technology to investigate the expression patterns of 381 genes with known association to host immune responses. Hybridization targets were derived from previously characterized bovine cDNAs. A total of 576 reporters (473 sequence-validated cDNAs and 77 controls) were spotted onto glass slides in two sets of four replicates. Two color, comparative hybridizations across both mesenteric lymph node (MLN) and small intestine mucosa (SIM) RNA samples were done between animals with previously demonstrated phenotypic differences based on natural exposure to gastro- intestinal (GI) nematodes over a 6-month exposure period. A total of 138 significant hybridization …

Bovine Coronary Region Keratinocyte Colony Formation Is Supported By Epidermal-Dermal Interactions, J.A. Mills, D.S. Zarlenga, R.M. Dyers

United States Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service / University of Nebraska-Lincoln: Faculty Publications

Delineating the factors that orchestrate keratinocyte growth and differentiation in the claw is pivotal to understanding the quality of hoof horn production in health and disease. The specific objectives of this in- vestigation were to establish an in vitro culture system for bovine coronary region keratinocytes and dermal fibroblasts, determine the colony-forming capacity of epidermal keratinocytes in the coronary region, and characterize transcriptional changes in specific cy- tokine, growth factor, and receptor genes during colony formation in coculture. Fibroblasts and keratinocytes from the coronary region of the lateral, hind limb claw were collected, and 5.0 × 103 and 7.5 × …

Cow Size, Perhaps More Than Just A Production Efficiency Decision, Matthew Stockton, Dillion Feuz, Roger K. Wilson

Cornhusker Economics

In Cattle Today, an online beef producer’s magazine, a February 7, 2008 article titled “Preconditioned Calves Give Premium At Market” contained this statement, "We're weaning calves bigger and younger than we ever have. Many calves now weigh 600 to 700 pounds at weaning, whereas 20 or 30 years ago a yearling would weigh 600 to 700 pounds.” (http://www.cattletoday.com/archive/2008/February/CT1 411.shtml).

If you asked experts in the beef industry, you would probably get many different answers as to why calf size has increased. Some of the factors that probably have had an influence in increasing size include a better understanding of …

Isotopic Evidence Of Methane Oxidation Across The Surface Water–Ground Water Interface, Diego Andrés Riveros-Iregui, Jennifer Y. King

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Biogenic methane (CH₄) from wetlands plays a crucial role in the carbon cycle, but the dynamics of dissolved methane flux across the surface water-ground water interface remain poorly understood. This study focused on the effects of spatial transformation of dissolved methane and the role of ground-water recharge in the distribution of dissolved methane across the surface water-ground water interface. Here we present carbon isotopic measurements of biogenic methane and dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC) from the Sarita Wetland, on the St. Paul Campus of the University of Minnesota, and also in six monitoring wells located down gradient from the …

Ard News December 2008

Agricultural Research Division: News and Annual Reports

Contents:

Comments from the Dean Gary Cunningham
Undergraduate Honors Research Program
David H. and Annie E. Larrick/William G. Whitmore Funds, 2009
Mussehl Endowment
New or Revised Projects September and October 2008
Proposals Submitted for Federal Grants September and October 2008
Grants and Contracts Received for September and October 2008

Synopsis Of The Oryctini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) From The Brazilian Amazon, Hector Jaime Gasca Alvarez, Claudio Ruy Vasconcelos Da Fonseca, Brett Ratcliffe

Insecta Mundi

The Oryctini (Coleoptera: Scarabaeidae: Dynastinae) is a large tribe of worldwide distribution with approximately 26 genera and 230 species. Fourteen genera and 113 species are found in the Neotropical region. Knowledge of the tribe in the Neotropics is fragmentary, necessitating further studies that address taxonomy, biology, and geographical distribution patterns. This study surveyed the Oryctini of the Brazilian Amazon. The composition of the group in the study area consisted of 7 genera, 18 species and 2 subspecies found in 7 states, 91 municipal districts, and approximately 167 specific localities. States with larger number of species are Amazonas and Pará, with …

Extended Visions, November/December 2008

Extended Visions Newsletter (ARDC)

Contents:
ARDC FEATURE UNIT - Feedmill
About the People
Mill Provides Feedstuffs for Research Projects
Ag Learning at the Festival
Eastern Nebraska Goat Workshop
Look to the Sky.... Observatory Offers Public Viewing Night - Nov. 7
Nebraska Cattlemen Visit the ARDC
Mead Magnet School
Click on the red barn and help out FFA!
UNL Representative helps Mead Students Discover Career Possibilities
Nebraska Soybean Day and Machinery Expo
Reverse Trade Mission
Saunders County Exhibitors Win Top Honors at Ak-sar-ben
The Clover Corner - What’s Going On With 4-H...
2008 Summer Field Days Results....
Utilizing Cornstalks and Other Crop Residue to Manage …

College Of Agricultural Sciences And Natural Resources, 15th Annual Report August 1, 2007-July 31, 2008

College of Agricultural Sciences and Natural Resources (CASNR): Annual Reports

Contents
Introduction 3 • Dedication 5 • Administration and Staff 6 • Academic Unit Administrators 6 • CASNR Standing Committees 7 • Faculty Advisory Council 7 • Student Advising Improvement Committee 8 • Teaching and Learning Improvement Council 9 • Scholarship and Graduation with Distinction Committee 9 • Curriculum Committee 10 • Teaching Faculty 11 • Faculty Meetings 11 • New Faculty or Faculty with New Appointments 11 • Retirements 12 • Faculty Awards 12 • Departmental News and Events 14 • Agricultural Economics 15 • Agricultural Leadership, Education and Communication 18 • Agronomy and Horticulture 20 • Animal Science …

Identification And Characterization Of A Cadmium-Transporting P-Type Atpase In Yeast Saccharomyces Cerevisiae, David J. Adle

Department of Biochemistry: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Detoxification and homeostatic acquisition of metal ions are vital for all living organisms. Non-physiological heavy metals are toxic at low concentrations and represent major environmental hazards to human health. In particular, cadmium is a toxic environmental pollutant linked to a number of ailments including cancer, kidney and bone disease and reproductive disorders. The biological effects of cadmium toxicity which lead to human disease and the cellular mechanisms for cadmium defense are ill defined. Thus, the study of heavy metal detoxification systems represents an important research avenue to help combat cadmium related disorders.

The goal of this research project was to …

Shaping The Cross Timbers With Fire And Grazing, John A. Guretzky

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Recently, our agricultural research team has been asked to provide talks during tours of our Oswalt Road Ranch. The Oswalt Road Ranch is a 4,992-acre property in Love County, Okla., willed to us by D. Joyce Coffey. The Noble Foundation took full control of the property in 2000. The ranch is a valuable piece of property because of its unique natural beauty and potential to support livestock production and wildlife habitat. On the tours, we have been showing off our new state-of-the art livestock handling facilities and providing information about results from recent research on by-product feeds, the Noble Foundation …

Efficient Utilization Of Water And Nitrogen Resources For Grain Sorghum Under Rainfed Conditions, Akwasi A. Abunyewa

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

Grain sorghum (Sorghum bicolor L. Moench) is the fifth world leading cereal after maize, wheat, rice and barley. The crop can yield reasonably well under adverse conditions of low soil water and high temperature. A three year field study was conducted in a transect across Nebraska where annual mean precipitation ranges from 300 to 900 mm yr^-1 to evaluate management practices to optimize yield potential under water limiting conditions. Loss in grain yield due to planting configurations ranged from 20 to 30% with skip-row configurations compared to conventional planting configuration (s0) at the site with greatest precipitation. At …

How Does A Riverine Setting Affect The Lifestyle Of Shellmound Builders In Brazil?, Sabine Eggers, C. C. Petronilho, K. Brandt, C. Jericó-Daminello, J. Filippini, Karl Reinhard

Karl Reinhard Publications

The contact of inland and coastal prehistoric groups in Brazil is believed to have been restricted to regions with no geographical barrier, as is the case in the Ribeira de Iguape valley. The inland osteological collection from the riverine shellmound Moraes (5800–4500 BP) represents a unique opportunity to test this assumption for this region. Despite cultural similarities between riverine and coastal shellmounds, important ecological and site distribution differences are expected to impact on lifestyle. The purpose of this study is thus to document and interpret health and lifestyle indicators in Moraes in comparison to coastal shellmound groups. Specifically we test …

Can Genetically Engineered Nutraceuticals Win Back Skeptical Consumers?, Karoline Kastanek, Emie Yiannaka

Cornhusker Economics

The unexpected (to many) consumer resistance to the first generation genetically modified (GM) food products that focused on producers, and aimed at increasing yields, hurt the prospects of the agricultural biotechnology sector. As a response and in an effort to win back skeptical consumers, agricultural biotechnology firms started working on food products with functional properties desirable to consumers, that are commonly known as second generation GM products. Food products in this category include vitamin A enriched rice and maize (golden rice and golden maize), high protein wheat, and high oleic soybean oil, to name a few. Recently, a new generation …

Expressional Control Of A Cadmium-Transporting P1b-Type Atpase By A Metal Sensing Degradation Signal, David J. Adle, Jaekwon Lee

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Cadmium is a highly toxic environmental contaminant implicated in various diseases. Our previous data demonstrated that Pca1, a P_1B-type ATPase, plays a critical role in cadmium resistance in yeast S. cerevisiae by extruding intracellular cadmium. This illustrates the first cadmium-specific efflux pump in eukaryotes. In response to cadmium, yeast cells rapidly enhance expression of Pca1 by a post-transcriptional mechanism. To gain mechanistic insights into the cadmium-dependent control of Pca1 expression, we have characterized the pathway for Pca1 turnover and the mechanism of cadmium sensing that leads to up-regulation of Pca1. Pca1 is a short-lived protein (t_½ < 5 min) and is subject to ubiquitination when cells are growing in media lacking cadmium. Distinct from many plasma membrane transporters targeted to the vacuole for degradation via endocytosis, cells defective in this pathway did not stabilize Pca1. Rather, Pca1 turnover was dependent on the proteasome. These data suggest that, in the absence of cadmium, Pca1 is targeted for degradation before reaching the plasma membrane. Mapping of the N terminus of Pca1 identified a metal-responding degradation signal encompassing amino acids 250–350. Fusion of this domain to a stable protein demonstrated that it functions autonomously in a metal-responsive manner. Cadmium sensing by cysteine residues within this domain circumvents ubiquitination and degradation of Pca1. These data reveal a new mechanism for substrate-mediated control of P_{1B …}

Intsormil Support Contributes To Increased Sorghum Yields In Central America, Intsormil

INTSORMIL Impacts and Bulletins

INTSORMIL has supported sorghum research and technology transfer activities in Central America since 1981. Emphasis has been on El Salvador and Nicaragua but now the program is expanding to other Central American countries. Statistics provided by the Ministry of Agriculture indicate a significant advance in sorghum production in El Salvador. As shown in the graph below surface area in ha sown to sorghum during the period 1999-2009 did not increase (about 105,000 ha). However, during that same period grain production increased from 140,000 MT to 186,000 MT, an increase of 33%. This is due to the dramatic yield increase per …

Simple Rules That May Help Ranchers Select Replacement Heifers For Increased Pregnancy Rates And Reduce Dystocia, Matthew Stockton, Roger K. Wilson

Cornhusker Economics

Every year livestock producers replace cows they cull from their herds with young animals often selected from progeny of the cows they currently own. Since replacement rates for beef cattle in Nebraska tend to average between 16 to 20 percent annually, this is not a trivial undertaking. Much of the talk among producers tends to concentrate on muscling and other physically observable characteristics, and the genetic composition of animals to be selected as replacements. These criteria are important, but what must also be considered is the ability of the selected replacement animals to perform reproductively. Producers expect cost to be …

Alternative Cereal Processing Technologies [Conference Program And Proceedings] (Lobatse, Botswana, November 4-6, 2008), Martin Kebakile, Kemelo Ookeditse

INTSORMIL Presentations

Objectives of the workshop:

To review the current status of local cereals production and processing explore opportunities for growing the cereal industry.

To promote diversification of cereal processing by sensitizing all players and stakeholders in the cereals industry about readily available alternative cereals processing technologies which have commercial potential.

To promote and strengthen collaboration between local and international researchers, as well as fostering strategic partnerships between researchers and users of technologies to develop customer tailored processing technologies.

Graduate Connections- November 2008

Graduate Connections: A Newsletter for UNL Graduate Students

In This Issue:

Click on links to navigate the newsletter

Navigating Graduate School......1

Feeling Like the Last Person on Earth?

Intellectual Community

Good Practices in Graduate

Education....................................3

The Institutional Review Board: An Interview with UNL’s Research Compliance Staff

Teaching Tip .................................4

Socratic Questioning

Essential Connections..................5

New and Improved Graduate Studies Web Site

Professional Development...........5

Preparing for Academic Conferences

The Academic Job Interview: Questions to Help You Prepare

Interactions...................................7

Graduate Students to Be Honored with University Fellowships

What Makes a Competitive Fellowship Application?

GSA News

Funding Opportunities.................9

Announcements..........................11

Current Fellowship Applications

Commencement Changes

LGBTQA Reading Group

Calendar......................................12

Word to the Wise.......................13 …

Mortalités, Effondrements Et Affaiblissements Des Colonies D’Abeilles, Julie Chiron, Anne-Marie Hattenberger

Entomology Papers from Other Sources

Depuis plusieurs dizaines d’années, une diminution notoire des populations de pollinisateurs a été signalée dans de nombreux pays par les professionnels et les scientifiques. L’enjeu économique et écologique représenté par la perte de ces individus a déterminé la mise en oeuvre de nombreuses études sur le sujet. Plusieurs hypothèses de facteurs de risques ont été avancées pour tenter d’expliquer ce phénomène. En France, notamment, les apiculteurs ont alerté les pouvoirs publics quant à un effet potentiel de certains traitements phytopharmaceutiques à usage agricole sur la vitalité des colonies d’abeilles domestiques (Apis mellifera), entraînant la décision par le Ministre …

Task Specificity In Early Oral Motor Development, Erin M. Wilson, Jordan R. Green, Yana Y. Yunusova, Christopher A. Moore

Department of Special Education and Communication Disorders: Faculty Publications

This article addresses a long-standing clinical and theoretical debate regarding the potential relationship between speech and nonspeech behaviors in the developing system. The review is motivated by the high popularity of nonspeech oral motor exercises (NSOMEs), including alimentary behaviors such as chewing, in the treatment of speech disorders in young children. The similarities and differences in the behavioral characteristics, sensory requirements, and task goals for speech and nonspeech oromotor behaviors are compared. Integrated theoretical paradigms and empirical data on the development of early oromotor behaviors are discussed. Although the efficacy of NSOMEs remains empirically untested at this time, studies of …

Nebline, Nov./Dec. 2008

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Make a Difference: Reduce, Reuse, Recycle
2008 Crop Year in Review
Preserve Grain Quality with Aeration Management
Estimating Corn Drydown Time
It’s Not Easy Being Green During Nebraska’s Winters
Put on an Extra Blanket (Winter Mulching)
Avoid Stacking Firewood Next to House
The Keys to a Perfect Thanksgiving Meal
$tretch Your Food Dollar During the Holiday Season
Healthy Eating: Easy as Pie—Turkey Pot Pie
Family & Community Education (FCE) Clubs: Presidents’ Notes—Bonnie’s Bits
FCE News & Events
Household Hints: Keep Kitchen and Bathroom Clean During Guest Season
Skip the “Humbug!” 10 Tips to Relieve Holiday Stress
Housecleaning Ergonomics: How to …