Digital Commons Network^™

Effects Of Ungulate‐Proof Fencing On Space Use By Wild Pigs, Kelly Koriakin, D. Buck Jolley, Benjamin Smith, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Nathan P. Snow

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are a highly adaptable species that have invaded many regions and cause significant damage throughout the world. Ungulate‐proof fencing is increasingly used in conjunction with other control techniques to manage wild pig populations. However, little is known about how fencing affects wild pig space use behaviors and whether any changes may be exploited to increase efficacy of control activities. Our goal was to understand how wild pigs altered their space use behaviors in response to newly constructed fencing. Specifically, we examined for changes in space use area (home range and core area), increases in …

Relief Displacement Of Airborne Objects, Esteban Fernández-Juricic, Joe Crumpton, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Sathishkummar Saiappan, Jared A. Elmore, Landon R. Jones, B. Santhana Krishnan, Raymond B. Iglay, Bradley F. Blackwell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The increasing availability of unoccupied aircraft systems (UAS, also referred to as drones) has led to their use in taking vertical aerial photographs at relatively small spatial scales. These photographs can be used to measure the distances between objects appearing in the photographs. However, relief displacement can cause an object above or below ground level to appear at a point in a vertical aerial photograph that is not directly in-line with the object’s actual location, causing a measurement error. A UAS was used in this study as a photographed airborne object because its location and altitude could be controlled. We …

Honors In Practice, Volume 20, 2024: About The Authors, National Collegiate Honors Council

Honors in Practice Online Archive

JUDY ALBAKRY serves as an adjunct professor and honors advisor at Middle Tennessee State University. She also coordinates the Buchanan Transfer Fellowship Program in the honors college. Her research specializes in student success initiatives, high-impact practices, transfer student engagement, and program assessment.

Supervisor Integrity Empowers Employees To Advocate For Diversity In Problematic Climates, Timothy G. Kundro, Brett H. Neely Jr., Cindy P. Muir (Zapata)

Department of Management: Faculty Publications

Supervisors struggle to encourage employees to engage in diversity advocacy—key behaviors that help promote more equitable workplaces. Research hints that one reason for this struggle may be that employees lack the empowerment to engage in such behaviors. Drawing on perspectives that conceptualize diversity advocacy as a moral and virtuous behavior, we integrate research on leadership and empowerment to suggest that supervisor integrity can empower observers to engage in diversity advocacy. In exploring boundary conditions, we draw on performance models to counterintuitively suggest that this effect is strongest when employees perceive a negative diversity climate, as employees see the greatest need …

Quantitative Verification For Massive Linear Systems, Qing Liu

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

The verification of linear systems has been an active area of research for decades. Reachability analysis is a key component in verification problems. It involves computing the system’s reachable set, the set of reachable states in the state space from a given set of initial states. Most verification methods primarily focus on qualitative verification, which answers whether or not a system may violate specified safety conditions. This paper extends this qualitative verification to quantitative verification by introducing a novel approach, employing probabilistic stars (Probstars) to compute reachable sets, which augment traditional star sets by integrating Gaussian-distributed random variables with …

Joint Interpretation Of Ert And Self-Potential Data To Characterize The Subsurface Geology And Hydrodynamics Along The Sutherland Supply Canal And Paxton Siphon Inlet, Paxton, Nebraska., M. K. Aboushanab, D. R. Hallum, R. M. Joeckel

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Nebraska Statewide Groundwater-Level Monitoring Report 2023, Aaron R. Young, Mark E. Burbach, Sue Olafsen Lackey, Robert Matthew Joeckel, Nawaraj Shrestha, Jeffrey Westrop

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

This report is a synthesis of groundwater-level monitoring programs in Nebraska. It is a continuation of the series of annual reports and maps produced by the Conservation and Survey Division (CSD) of the University of Nebraska in cooperation with the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) since the 1950s. Groundwater-level monitoring began in Nebraska in 1930 to survey the state’s groundwater resources and observe changes in its availability on a regular basis. The CSD and USGS cooperatively developed, maintained, and operated an observation-well network throughout the state. These two agencies were responsible for collecting and archiving this information, and for making it …

Leveraging High Resolution Classifications And Random Forests For Hindcasting Decades Of Mesic Ecosystem Dynamics In The Landsat Time Series, N. E. Kolarik, Nawaraj Shrestha, T. Caughlin, J. S. Brandt

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Multiscale Characterization Of Splays Produced By A Historic, Rain-On-Snow Flood On A Large Braided Stream (Platte River, Central Usa), J. T. Korus, R. M. Joeckel, A. R. Mittelstet, N. Shrestha

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Strategyproof Mechanisms For Group-Fair Obnoxious Facility Location Problems, Jiaqian Li, Minming Li, Hau Chan

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

We study the group-fair obnoxious facility location problems from the mechanism design perspective where agents belong to different groups and have private location preferences on the undesirable locations of the facility. Our main goal is to design strategyproof mechanisms that elicit the true location preferences from the agents and determine a facility location that approximately optimizes several group-fair objectives. We first consider the maximum total and average group cost (group-fair) objectives. For these objectives, we propose deterministic mechanisms that achieve 3-approximation ratios and provide matching lower bounds. We then provide the characterization of 2-candidate strategyproof randomized mechanisms. Leveraging the characterization, …

Altruism In Facility Location Problems, Houyu Zhou, Hau Chan, Minming Li

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

We study the facility location problems (FLPs) with altruistic agents who act to benefit others in their affiliated groups. Our aim is to design mechanisms that elicit true locations from the agents in different overlapping groups and place a facility to serve agents to approximately optimize a given objective based on agents’ costs to the facility. Existing studies of FLPs consider myopic agents who aim to minimize their own costs to the facility.We mainly consider altruistic agents with well-motivated group costs that are defined over costs incurred by all agents in their groups. Accordingly, we define Pareto strategyproofness to account …

Hop Cone Drying For The Small Grower: Temperature And Airflow Considerations, Stacy A. Adams, David M. Mabie, Michael F. Kocher, David Jones

Department of Agronomy and Horticulture: Faculty Publications

Small hop growers without nearby processors for cone stripping and drying must attempt to do so on their own farm. Challenges exist for self-built drying systems, including drying capacity, processing speed, airflow direction, and maintaining quality during drying. Research-based recommendations are given for optimal temperature, sizing of drying vessel, maximum cone depth, and influences associated with airflow on processing uniformity and cone quality are presented.

Open Access And U. S. Federal Information Policy, Eric Harbeson

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

Federal agencies are directed, as a matter of United States Federal policy, to provide free, immediate public access to peer-reviewed scholarly publications that are produced with support from Federal research grant funding. Because copyright vests in the author of the work, agencies must have permission from the author in order to provide that access. A government-wide regulation, in place since 1976, constitutes one possible source for the needed permission. The “Federal Purpose License” provides that, as a condition of Federal funding, grant recipients issue the granting agency a non-exclusive license to use all works subject to copyright and either developed …

Dynamic Modeling And Control Of A Solid State Semiconductor-Based Transformer, Microgrid And Storage Systems, Rubén Darío Viñán-Velasco

Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Smart Grids are power grid models designed with the idea of including the growing new technologies, from generation to storage devices, and are a response to the growing demands from consumers and the presence of electronic components being commonplace in the modern devices. The design requires a dynamic alternative in order to build an independent grid that can also work in cooperation with other micro-grids and the power grid in an integrated way. Smart-grids present several advantages over the traditional power grid scheme, but the economic costs of the components required to implement smart-grids is currently a great limitation. This …

Limitations Of Invasive Snake Control Tools In The Context Of A New Invasion On An Island With Abundant Prey, Shane R. Siers, Melia G. Nafus, Jereid E. Calaor, Rachel M. Volsteadt, Matthew S. Grassi, Megan Volsteadt, Aaron F. Collins, Patrick D. Barnhart, Logan T. Huse, Amy A. Yackel Adams, Diane L. Vice

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

In October 2020, a new population of invasive brown treesnakes (Boiga irregularis) was discovered on the 33-ha Cocos Island, 2.5 km off the south coast of Guam, United States. Cocos Island is a unique conservation resource, providing refuge for many lizards and birds, including endangered species, which were extirpated from mainland Guam by invasive predators including brown treesnakes. We sought to evaluate the usefulness of toxic baiting with acetaminophen-treated carrion baits and cage trapping, common tools for the control of brown treesnakes on mainland Guam, as potential eradication tools on Cocos Island. We evaluated multiple bait types and …

Characterization Of Recent Wild Pig‑Vehicle Collisions In Georgia, Usa, Jeremiah L. Psiropoulos, Emily Howe, John J. Mayer, Sophie C. Mckee

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Vehicle collisions with wild pigs (Sus scrofa) are reported almost everywhere this species is found. However, this is one of the least studied and characterized forms of damage that these invasive animals cause in the United States (US). We analyzed 518 wild pig-vehicle collisions (WPVCs) that took place statewide in Georgia between 2015 and 2021. From that dataset, we analyzed several parameters in order to better understand and characterize these accidents on a scale that had previously not been done in the US. Wild pig-vehicle collisions were reported from 105 out of the 159 counties in Georgia, increasing …

Biodistribution Analysis Of Peptide-Coated Magnetic Iron Nanoparticles: A Simple And Quantitative Method, Pavithra Natarajan, Katherine Horak, Jennifer Rowe, Sungmin Yoon, Joshua Lingo, John M. Tomich, Sherry D. Fleming

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Biodistribution tracks compounds or molecules of interest in vivo to understand a compound’s anticipated efficacy and safety. Nanoparticles deliver nucleic acid and drug payloads and enhance tumor permeability due to multiple properties such as high surface area to volume ratio, surface functionalization, and modifications. Studying the in vivo biodistribution of nanoparticles documents the effectiveness and safety of nanoparticles and facilitates a more application-driven approach for nanoparticle development that allows for more successful translation into clinical use. In this study, we present a relatively simple method to determine the biodistribution of magnetic iron nanoparticles in mice. In vitro, cells take up …

Effects Of Pregnancy Prevention On Brucella Abortus Shedding In American Bison (Bison Bison), Pauline Nol, Rebecca Frey, Morgan Wehtje, Jack C. Rhyan, Patrick Ryan Clarke, Matthew Mccollum, Christine Quance, Douglas C. Eckery, Suelee Robbe-Austerman

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Products of parturition are the predominant source of Brucella abortus for transmission in bison (Bison bison). Our objective was to assess whether preventing pregnancy in Brucella-seropositive bison reduced B. abortus shedding. Brucella-seropositive and -seronegative bison from Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming, USA were used in a replicated experiment. Each of two replicates (rep1, rep2) included a group of seropositive females treated with a single dose of gonadotropin-releasing hormone-based immunocontraceptive (Treatment rep1, n = 15; Treatment rep2, n = 20) and an untreated group (Control rep1, n = 14; Control rep2, …

Effects Of The Immunocontraceptive Gonacon On Pregnancy In Brucella-Seropositive American Bison (Bison Bison), Rebecca K. Frey, Morgan E. Wehtje, Pauline Nol, Patrick R. Clarke, Jack C. Rhyan, Matthew P. Mccollum, Lowell A. Miller, Douglas C. Eckery

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The purpose of this study was to determine if the number of pregnancies in naturally infected Brucella abortus-positive bison (Bison bison) cows would be reduced over a period of 5 yr after one treatment with 3000 mg gonadotropin-releasing hormone immunocontraceptive (GonaCon) compared to a similar group of naturally infected B. abortus-positive bison cows not treated with GonaCon. In each of the 5 yr, GonaCon-treated cows produced fewer offspring in relation to number of cows than the nontreated cows. Fisher’s Exact test comparing offspring produced during the first reproductive season showed a significant difference between the …

Coyotes In The Great Basin Desert Do Not Exhibit A Spatial Response Following The Removal Of Anthropogenic Water Sources, Nadine A. Pershyn, Eric M. Gese, Erica F. Stuber, Bryan M. Kluever

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Coyote (Canis latrans) range expansion into desert ecosystems has highlighted the role of anthropogenic water sources in arid ecosystems. Despite hypotheses that additional water facilitated this expansion, previous studies reported that coyotes did not exhibit a spatial or dietary response to removal of anthropogenic water. We used GPS data to examine if coyotes responded to water removal at a finer spatial scale than previously investigated. Our integrated step selection analysis did not find evidence that coyotes adjusted their distance to water following water removal. Vegetation was an important factor in habitat selection of coyotes, with riparian and agricultural …

An Estimate Of The Marginal Annual Economic Contribution Of Wild-Pig Hunting In Texas, Sophie C. Mckee, Keith M. Carlisle, John Tomeček, Stephanie A. Shwiff, Rachael Connally, Maureen Frank, Mike Bodenchuk, Nicole Didero

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Context

Wild-pig (Sus scrofa) hunting is a culturally significant recreational and commercial activity in Texas, but the overall impacts are contested. Except for one 1980s study, there has been no research to formally quantify any economic benefits of wild-pig hunting in Texas, which is an important component for weighing the costs and benefits of wild-pig presence in the state.

Aims and methods

To fill that research gap, we surveyed a sample of resident and non-resident 2018–2019 hunting-license holders in Texas about various topics related to their wild-pig hunting activities, including expenditures

Key results

On the basis of the …

Rapid Point-Of-Care Testing For Detection Of Antibodies To Toxoplasma Gondii In Black Vultures And Ring-Billed Gulls From Pennsylvania, Alexa Rosypal Von Dohlen, Sydney Randall, Jordyan Grays, Mark A. Dugo, Brian J. Hunt, Justin Brown, Kyle Van Why, Sawsan Ammar, Richard Gerhold

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Toxoplasma gondii is a zoonotic protozoan parasite that infects most warm-blooded animals, including birds. Scavenging birds are epidemiologically important hosts because they can serve as indicators of environmental T. gondii levels. A rapid point-of-care (POC) test that detects antibodies to T. gondii in humans is commercially available. In this research, we assessed the ability of the human POC test to detect anti–T. gondii antibodies in 106 black vultures (Coragyps atratus) and 23 ring-billed gulls (Larus delawarensis) from Pennsylvania, USA. Serum samples were tested with the POC test and compared to the modified …

What Is Known, Unknown, And Needed To Be Known About Damage Caused By Wild Pigs, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Kim M. Pepin, Seth M. Cook, Sophie Mckee, Abigail Pagels, Keely J. Kohen, Ingrid A. Messner, Michael P. Glow, Nathan P. Snow

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Damage assessments provide evidence for initiating and evaluating management programs that protect natural resources and human livelihoods against invasive species. Wild pigs (Sus scrofa) cause extensive damage in their native and non-native ranges, but the extent of current damage and efficacy of management of the damage (i.e., population control of wild pigs, exclusion fencing, etc.) remains poorly described. We conducted a systematic review of physical damage caused by wild pigs to summarize what is known and identify knowledge gaps for damage assessment. Wild pig damage assessments have been overwhelmingly qualitative (84% of studies) and measured differently across studies, …

Population Growth Rates Of Pronghorn: Influence Of Temporally And Spatially Explicit Conditions, Density Dependence, And Scale, Eric M. Gese, Cole A. Bleke, Shane B. Roberts, Paul Atwood, Patricia A. Terletzky

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Density-independent and density-dependent population regulation has long been a subject of investigation. We examined density-dependent and density-independent factors on growth rates of pronghorn (Antilocapra americana (Ord, 1815)) using a retrospective analysis of population survey data. Across Idaho, we found that as the proportion of the subpopulation harvested the previous year increased, growth rates increased. Similarly, as fawn recruitment increased, growth rates increased. We also found when the growth rate in the previous year increased, the growth rate the subsequent year decreased. When subpopulations were examined independently, we found that in a low-elevation desert subpopulation, growth rates were influenced by …

Home Range And Resource Selection Of Virginia Opossums In The Rural Southeastern United States, Jacob E. Hill, David A. Bernasconi, Richard B. Chipman, Amy T. Gilbert, James C. Beasley, Olin E. Rhodes Jr., Guha Dharmarajan

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

The Virginia opossum (Didelphis virginiana) has a rapidly expanding distribution in North America, but many aspects of its ecology remain relatively understudied, particularly in rural areas of its core range. We collected GPS telemetry data from 93 opossums in a rural, non-agricultural landscape in South Carolina, USA (2018–2019) to examine factors influencing space use and resource selection. Estimated male home ranges (99% utilization distributions) were on average 50% larger than those of females (mean home range 115.9 ± 103.7 ha vs 76.7 ± 75.0 ha). The home range size decreased on average by 20% with each 20% increase …

High Thermal Quality Rookeries Facilitate High Thermoregulatory Accuracy In Pregnant Female Rattlesnakes, Haley A. Moniz, Jack Henry Buck, Hayley L. Crowell, Scott M. Goetz, Trevor D. Ruiz, Emily N. Taylor, Scott M. Bobacks

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Temperature is a primary factor influencing organismal development, and the fluctuating daily and seasonal thermal regimes of temperate climates may challenge the ability of viviparous reptiles to optimize body temperatures during gestation. Testing how viviparous reptiles navigate highly variable thermal conditions (e.g., relatively cold nights and/or highly fluctuating temperatures) is a powerful way to understand how they use microhabitats for thermoregulatory benefits. We assessed the thermal ecology of pregnant and non-pregnant female prairie rattlesnakes (Crotalus viridis) inhabiting a high-elevation, montane shrubland in northwest Colorado throughout their short summer active season, addressing the thermal consequences of microhabitat selection with …

Wildlife Monitoring With Drones: A Survey Of End Users, Raymond B. Iglay, Landon R. Jones, Jared E. Elmore, Kristine O. Evans, Sathish Samiappan, Morgan B. Pfeiffer, Brad F. Blackwell

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Rapid advancements in technology often yield research inquiry into novel applications and drone (i.e., unoccupied aircraft systems or UAS) applications in wildlife management are no exception. We questioned the time lag between drone‐related research and end‐user assessments. We implemented an online, cross‐sectional survey of wildlife professionals to better understand current drone use and benefits or concerns, complemented by a review of contemporary peer‐reviewed and gray literature. We found little disparity between scientific inquiry and end‐user experiences (i.e., similar trends among concerns in published literature and survey results). Exploring new (i.e., advancements in computer vision) and refining original drone applications (i.e., …

Comparing Efficiencies Of Population Control Methods For Responding To Introductions Of Transboundary Animal Diseases In Wild Pigs, Nathan P. Snow, Benjamin Smith, Michael J. Lavelle, Michael P. Glow, Kayleigh Chalkowski, Bruce R. Leland, Sarah Sherburne, Justin W. Fischer, Keely J. Kohen, Seth M. Cook, Hatton Smith, Kurt C. Vercauteren, Ryan S. Miller, Kim M. Pepin

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Introductions of transboundary animal diseases (TADs) into free-ranging wildlife can be difficult to control and devastating for domestic livestock trade. Combating a new TAD introduction in wildlife with an emergency response requires quickly limiting spread of the disease by intensely removing wild animals within a contiguous area. In the case of African swine fever virus (ASFv) in wild pigs (Sus scrofa), which has been spreading in many regions of the world, there is little information on the time- and cost-efficiency of methods for intensively and consistently culling wild pigs and recovering carcasses in an emergency response scenario. We compared the …

Temporal And Spatial Influences On Fawn Summer Survival In Pronghorn Populations: Management Implications From Noninvasive Monitoring, Cole A. Bleke, Eric M. Gese, Juan J. Villalba, Shane B. Roberts, Susannah S. French

United States Department of Agriculture Wildlife Services: Staff Publications

Monitoring vital rates allowsmanagers to estimate trends in growth rates of ungulate populations. However, connecting the influence of nutrition on ungulate demography is challenging. Noninvasive sampling offers a low-cost, low-effort alternative for measuring nutritional indices, allowing for an increased understanding of the mechanistic relationships between environmental factors, nutrition, and specific population vital rates. We examined the temporal influence of intrinsic and extrinsic factors on pronghorn (Antilocapra americana) fawn recruitment. We collected fresh fecal samples from adult female pronghorn in five subpopulations spanning three sampling periods associated with critical maternal life-history stages (late gestation, early lactation, breeding season) for …

Concepts In Animal Parasitology, Chapter 14: Mesozoa (Phylum Dicyemida And Phylum Orthonecta) [Mesozoa], Sarah R. Catalano

Concepts in Animal Parasitology

An overview of the Mesozoa, parasites of marine invertebrates such as squid, octopus, and cuttlefish. Discusses the taxonomic classification, position in the Tree of Life, morphology, life cycle (inlcuding the secondary nematogen), hosts, patterns of infection, and molecular analyses, collection, and staining methods.

Chapter 14 in Concepts in Animal Parasitology on the Mesozoa (phylum Dicyemida and phylum Orthonectida) by Sarah R. Catalano. 2024. S. L. Gardner and S. A. Gardner, editors. Zea Books, Lincoln, Nebraska, United States. doi: 10.32873/unl.dc.ciap014