Digital Commons Network^™

A Caloric-Based Evaluation Of Diet Indices For Largemouth Bass, Kevin Lee Pope, Michael Lee Brown, Walter Gilbert Duffy, Paul Herbert Michaletz

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Selection of methods for quantitative description and assessment of food habits is a concern for trophic investigations. We used diet data for largemouth bass Micropterus salmoides, to compare a caloric-based approach with eight diet indices: percent frequency of occurrence, percent total number, percent total weight, mean relative number, mean relative volume, relative importance index, prey-importance index, and mean stomach fullness. Mean caloric contribution of stomach contents for each prey taxon was used as a standard to compare diet indices. Temporal differences in composition and caloric contents of largemouth bass stomach contents were apparent. Most diet indices provided similar assessments …

Yellow Jackets (Vespula Spp.) Disperse Trillium (Spp.) Seeds In Eastern North America, Jennifer A. Zettler, Timonthy P. Spira, Craig R. Allen

Nebraska Cooperative Fish and Wildlife Research Unit: Staff Publications

Approximately 70 plant families worldwide have ant-dispersed seeds (myrmecochory). In this putative ant-plant mutualism, ants are attracted to and disperse seeds that have a lipid-rich elaiosome. We observed yellow jackets (Vespula spp.) dispersing seeds of three elaiosome-bearing species-Trillium cuneatum, T. undulatum and T catesbaei-in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina and South Carolina. Moreover, we estimated the mean distance yellow jackets dispersed seeds of T. cuneatum by placing intact fruits on index cards and recovering dispersed seeds on sheets placed on the ground surface. Of the seeds presented, 41% were recovered and the average dispersal distance …

Animal Science Alumni Newsletter, Winter 2001

Department of Animal Science: Departmental News

Contents:

From the Department Head’s Desk
Faculty Resignation
New Faculty
Faculty Recognition
Graduate Program
Research News
Block and Bridle Honoree of the Year

Cladistic Analysis Of The Pennatulacean Genus Renilla Lamarck, 1816 (Coelenterata, Octocorallia), Carlos D. Pérez, Federico C. Ocampo

University of Nebraska State Museum: Entomology Papers

The genus Renilla is an interesting taxon for phylogenetic studies, which includes six species endemic to America with an anphiamerican distribution (Pacific–Atlantic Ocean). A cladistic analysis of Renilla Lamarck, 1816 using eight characters from external morphology produced one cladogram (length 14, CI = 0.92, RI = 0.87), and the characters were polarized using Echinoptilum macintoshii Hubrecht, 1885 as an outgroup. In the cladogram the following phylogenetic sequence results: ((R. koellikeri (R. muelleri, R. musaica)) (R. octodentata (R. reniformis, R. tentaculata))).

Moving Beyond Crisis Management, Donald A. Wilhite

National Drought Mitigation Center: Faculty Publications

To the casual observer, it may appear that in the past five years, drought has been a more common visitor to the American landscape. Drought conditions ravaged the southwestern and south-central states during 1995 and 1996, raising havoc in many economic sectors. It also caused serious environmental and social hardships. Drought has persisted in each year since, affecting most areas in the country on at least one occasion and several regions for three or more consecutive years.

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network – Winter 2000/01

Nebraska Earth Systems Education Network

Content:

“Everything is Connected to Everything Else.” by Dave Gosselin, NESEN Director

Global Environmental Change Workshop for K-12 Educators by Steve Meyer

NESEN 2001 Summer Workshops Announced by Dave Gosselin

Research Experience Teaches Students, Educators How Science Is Done by Charles Flowerday

Fall and Winter STEDII program by Mark Mesarch

Electronic Term Papers at UNL by Ken Dewey

“Inside Rain” - Curriculum and Collaborative Effort by Mark Mesarch

NESEN Web Site by Mark Mesarch

Agricultural Science Lessons & Activities Links on Website by Mark Mesarch

Change....New & Improved......Bigger & Better...Easier to Use by Mark Mesarch

Creating An Undergraduate Culture Of Science By Integrating Inquiry, Project-Based Learning, And Research Into The Curriculum, Richard A. Niesenbaum

Innovations in Undergraduate Research and Honors Education: Proceedings of the Second Schreyer National Conference 2001

Full engagement in science includes observation and asking questions, the development of a hypothesis, designing and conducting an appropriate experiment to test that hypothesis, data acquisition, appropriate analysis, revisiting initial questions, and dissemination of results. Here, I report on efforts to engage undergraduate students in all of these elements of science by integrating inquiry, investigation, and research in four intermediate biology courses for all majors. The project-based courses include Plant Ecology, Scanning Electron Microscopy, Molecular Genetics, and Physiological Ecology. Students conduct semester-long, experimental research projects and present their results at a public poster session on campus. Using computers, peripherals, and …

Department Of Veterinary And Biomedical Sciences: 2001 Annual Report, John A. Schmitz

School of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences: Information and History

Twenty Departmental students completed their Bachelor of Science in Agricultural Science degrees in 2001, nineteen in the Veterinary Science Major and one in the Veterinary Technologist Major. Twenty-five Nebraska residents were admitted into the College of Veterinary Medicine at Kansas State University, twelve of them having completed all or part of their pre-veterinary studies at UNL. Seven students completed their Master of Science degree in Veterinary Science. Enrollment in the Distance Education MS in Veterinary Science Master of Science, Distance Education Program increased to seven students, with several applications still being processed or expected. Three new Distance Education courses were …

Making Sense Of The Senses: The Body, The Brain And Modern Art, Will South

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

I magine, as so many artists, musicians, writers, poets and dreamers have tried to do so many times in so many ways, a universal Ian - guage-one that could be understood by anyone in any place at any time. However implausible such a language may seem, however romantic, naIve, or flatly impossible, its creation in visual terms was a common pursuit of early modern painters, those working in the first decades of the 20th century. At the beginning of this new millennium, we may ask afresh if all these past imaginings and pursuits were but elegant and finely wrought pipe …

Making Sense Of The Senses: The Body The Brain And Modern Art, Will South

Sheldon Museum of Art: Catalogs and Publications

Imagine, as so many artists, musicians, writers, poets and dreamers have tried to do so many times in so many ways, a universal language-one that could be understood by anyone in any place at any time. However implausible such a language may seem, however romantic, naive, or flatly impossible, its creation in visual terms was a common pursuit of early modern painters, those working in the first decades of the 20th century. At the beginning of this new millennium, we may ask afresh if all these past imaginings and pursuits were but elegant and finely wrought pipe dreams, or if …

Evidence For Different Mechanisms Of Chloroquine Resistance In 2 Plasmodium Species That Cause Human Malaria, Takashi Nomura, Jane M-R Carlton, J. Kevin Baird, Hernando A. Del Portillo, David J. Fryauff, Dharmendar Rathore, David A. Fidock, Xin-Zhuan Su, William E. Collins, Thomas F. Mccutchan, John C. Wootton, Thomas E. Wellems

United States Public Health Resources

Chloroquine (CQ)–resistant Plasmodium vivax malaria was first reported 12 years ago, nearly 30 years after the recognition of CQ-resistant P. falciparum. Loss of CQ efficacy now poses a severe problem for the prevention and treatment of both diseases. Mutations in a digestive vacuole protein encoded by a 13-exon gene, pfcrt, were shown recently to have a central role in the CQ resistance (CQR) of P. falciparum. Whether mutations in pfcrt orthologues of other Plasmodium species are involved in CQR remains an open question. This report describes pfcrt homologues from P. vivax, P. knowlesi, P. berghei, and …

Borrelia Lonestari Infection After A Bite By An Amblyomma Americanum Tick, Angela M. James, Dionysios Liveris, Gary P. Wormser, Ira Schwartz, Marisa A. Montecalvo, Barbara J. B. Johnson

United States Public Health Resources

Erythematous rashes that are suggestive of early Lyme disease have been associated with the bite of Amblyomma americanum ticks, particularly in the southern United States. However, Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has not been cultured from skin biopsy specimens from these patients, and diagnostic serum antibodies usually have not been found. Borrelia lonestari sp nov, an uncultured spirochete, has been detected in A. americanum ticks by DNA amplification techniques, but its role in human illness is unknown. We observed erythema migrans in a patient with an attached A. americanum tick. DNA amplification of the flagellin gene …

Evidence For Nonacetylcholinesterase Targets Of Organophosphorus Nerve Agent: Supersensitivity Of Acetylcholinesterase Knockout Mouse To Vx Lethality, Ellen G. Duysen, Bin Li, Weihua Xie, Lawrence M. Schopfer, Robert S. Anderson, Clarence A. Broomfield, Oksana Lockridge

United States Public Health Resources

The possibility that organophosphate toxicity is due to inhibition of targets other than acetylcholinesterase (AChE, EC 3.1.1.7) was examined in AChE knockout mice. Mice (34–55 days old) were grouped for this study, after it was determined that AChE, butyrylcholinesterase (BChE), and carboxylesterase activities had reached stable values by this age. Mice with 0, 50, or 100% AChE activity were treated subcutaneously with the nerve agent VX. The LD₅₀ for VX was 10 to 12 µg/kg in AChE-/-, 17 µg/kg in AChE+/-, and 24 µg/kg in AChE+/- mice. The same cholinergic signs of toxicity were present in AChE-/- mice as …

Characterization Of Immunoglobulin Binding To Isolated Human Erythrocyte Membranes: Evidence For Selective, Temperature-Induced Binding Of Naturally Occurring Autoantibodies To The Cytoskeleton, James M. Salhany, Karen S. Cordes, Renee L. Sloan

United States Public Health Resources

Human plasma contains naturally occurring autoantibodies to the predominant components of the erythrocyte membrane: band 3 and spectrin bands 1 and 2 of the cytoskeleton. The titer of cytoskeletal plasma autoantibodies increases in various hemolytic conditions, suggesting that opsonization of the cytoskeleton may play an important role in the clearance of hemolyzed (not senescent) erythrocytes from the circulation. In this study, we use Alexa Fluor 488 goat anti-human IgG conjugate (Molecular Probes, Eugene, OR, USA), to characterize plasma immunoglobulin binding to erythrocyte membranes from osmotically hemolyzed cells (`ghosts'). The results show that exposure of ghosts to plasma results in 4-fold …

Bovine Tuberculosis In Free-Ranging Carnivores From Michigan, Colleen S. Bruning-Fann, Stephen M. Schmitt, Scott D. Fitzgerald, Jean S. Fierke, Paul D. Friedrich, John B. Kaneene, Kathy A. Clarke, Kelly L. Butler, Janet B. Payeur, Diana L. Whipple, Thomas M. Cooley, Janice M. Miller, Darian P. Muzo

Michigan Bovine Tuberculosis Bibliography and Database

During a survey of carnivores and omnivores for bovine tuberculosis conducted in Michigan (USA) since 1996, Mycobacterium bovis was cultured from lymph nodes pooled from six coyotes (Canis latrans) (four adult female, two adult male), two adult male raccoons (Procyon lotor), one adult male red fox (Vulpes vulpes), and one 1.5-yr-old male black bear (Ursus americanus). One adult, male bobcat (Felis rufus) with histologic lesions suggestive of tuberculosis was negative on culture but positive for organisms belonging to the Mycobacterium tuberculosis complex when tested by polymerase chain reaction. All the …

The National Honors Report, Volume Xxii, Number 1, Spring 2001

The National Honors Report

Cover Story

"NCHC Stepping Stones: Imagination, Ideas, Discovery" by Joan Digby …1 In her presidential address, Joan Digby, whose conference was titled "The World of Imagination," has always been interested in the creative process. For Digby, honors education is life-long learning, a honing of skills made possible by honors that allow us to march through those open fields of discovery.

Teaching

1. "Design Your Own Space Mission" by Carol Browning …4 Browning, Chair of the Department of Mathematics and Computer Science, describes an honors section of a science research for non-majors. A good example of using faculty resources to share …

Toxicant Impacts On Density-Limited Populations: A Critical Review Of Theory, Practice, And Results, Valery E. Forbes, Richard M. Sibly, Peter Calow

Valery Forbes Publications

Most natural populations experience some density dependence, and longterm average rates of population growth are likely to be close to zero (i.e., steady state). An essential question, therefore, is how and to what extent do density-dependent effects influence the responses of populations to toxicant impacts? Here we consider three general types of interaction between density dependence and toxicant effects: additive, less than additive, and more than additive. If we know enough about the life-history dynamics of an organism and how its life-history traits are affected by density and toxicant exposure, we should be able to use life-history models to predict …

Crop Watch No. 2001-1, March 2, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Farmer Research Group..........2

Webcast Targets Checkoffs..........2

Soil Testing..........3

NU Nitrogen Resources..........3

Tips for Sampling..........4

Residual Nitrogen..........4

High-Nitrate Irrigation..........5

Planning Bt Refuges..........7

Subscription Form..........8

Crop Insurance..........9

Soybean Seed Shortage..........10

Crop Watch No. 2001-5, April 13, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Diseases and RR Soybeans..........45

Planting Soybeans..........46

Firming Seedbeds..........47

Forage Soybeans..........47

Early Season Weed Control..........48

Climate Factors..........49

Soybean Aphid..........50

Crop Watch No. 2001-7, April 27, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Field Updates..........60

Irrigating Alfalfa Early..........61

Irrigation Reservoir Levels..........63

Comparing Glyphosphates..........65

Crop Scout Training..........65

Sorghum Advantages..........66

Weed Control in Sorghum..........66

Converting Balance^® ..........67

Insect Resources..........67

Alfalfa Weevil Damage..........68

Sulfur on Cold Soils..........68

Crop Watch No. 2001-9, May 11, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Field Updates..........78

Irrigated Pastures..........78

Nitrogen Calculator Revised..........79

Postemergence Nitrogen..........79

Scouting for Cutworms..........80

Corn Leaf Beetles..........82

Irrigation System Costs..........83

Alfalfa Weevil Damage..........84

Critical Weed Control..........85

Crop Watch No. 2001-14, June 22, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Field Updates..........126

Assessing Hail Damage..........128

Greenbugs in Sorghum..........129

Slow Alfalfa Regrowth..........129

Nitrogen Leaching..........130

Soybean Nitrogen Deficiency..........130

Handling Wet Hay..........131

Spotted Alfalfa Aphid..........132

Change in Agriculture..........132

Integrated Weed Research..........133

Market Journal: Biosecurity..........134

Crop Watch No. 2001-15, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Field Updates..........136

Alfalfa Markets..........138

Caterpilla Alert..........139

Thistle Caterpillar

Wooly Bear Caterpillar

Alfalfa Butterfly

South Central Crop Researcher..........140

Forage After Wheat..........140

Crop Watch No. 2001-16, July 6, 2001, Lisa Brown Jasa

Crop Watch (1994–2005)

Field Updates..........142

Weeds After Wheat..........143

Soybean Defoliation..........145

Control Purple Loosestrife..........146

Western Bean Cutworm..........147

Grasshoppers..........148

Market Journal..........150

Seeding year Alfalfa..........150