Digital Commons Network^™

Subconjunctival Antimicrobial Poloxamer Gel For Treatment Of Corneal Ulceration In Stranded California Sea Lions (Zalophus Californianus), Claire A. Simeone, Carmen M. H. Colitz, Kathleen M. Colegrove, Cara L. Field, Carlos Rios, Heather L. Chandler, Shawn P. Johnson

United States Department of Commerce: Staff Publications

Objective Corneal ulcers are commonly encountered in pinnipeds. Prolonged oral antibiotics and topical ophthalmic solutions may not be practical to administer, and novel treatment techniques are desired. Thermodynamic gels are a potential solution because they hold antimicrobials at the site of injection, slowly releasing drug. This study investigated the clinical efficacy of antibiotic-impregnated poloxamer gel in management of corneal ulceration.

Animal studied Twenty-six California sea lions undergoing rehabilitation at The Marine Mammal Center.

Procedures A poloxamer gel mixed with 2% enrofloxacin was subconjunctivally injected in the treatment group. Control animals received oral doxycycline. Systemic antiinflammatories and analgesics were administered as …

Nebline, June/July 2024

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) Facts Related to Drinking Water by Becky Schuerman

Tar Spot is an Emerging Corn Disease in Eastern Nebraska by John Nelson

Nutrition Education for Refugee and Immigrant Families in Lincoln by Emily Gratopp

Recipe of the Month: Biryani by Emily Gratopp

Garden Guide: Things to Do This Month

Sudden Wilt and Death in Tomatoes by Sarah Browning

Sun's Out, Fun's Out: Keeping Your Little One Safe This Summer by Hayley Perez

Protect Yourself from Bed Bugs by Kait Chapman

Heart of 4-H Volunteer Award: Netsy Barent and Jessica Marsh

Nebraska 4-H Foundation Scholarship Winners

Learn …

Fabrication Of A Low-Cost Drum Seeder For Paddy, Muhammad Rashed Al Mamun, Md Rejaul Karim, Md Towfiqur Rahman, Md Janibul Alam Soeb, Md Imranul Alam

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Rice is a staple food crop. Bangladesh produces it extensively which raised the nation into the fourth-largest rice-grower in the world. Transplanting or direct seeding is a major task in rice cultivation where the manual transplanting method requires a huge labor cost which is beyond control in a peak season. Although mechanical rice transplanters become popularization land preparation and seedling rising as a pre transplanting task is costly and labor-intensive. On the other hand, manual broadcasting and machine seeding direct method still exist due to the above method’s problem. Considering spacing accuracies for intercultural operation, drum seeders are an easy …

Cost Modeling Of Provision C.3 Green Stormwater Infrastructure Requirements For Residential Development In Concord, California, James H. Mizutani

Community and Regional Planning Program: Professional Projects

To assist the city of Concord in achieving its housing goals as presented in its general plan, while still meeting the stormwater discharge requirements laid out in the city’s municipal discharge permit, I worked with local developers and consultants to create a spreadsheet modeling tool that allows housing developers to estimate the total cost of green stormwater infrastructure needed to comply with local regulations.

This report contains a summary of the conditions leading to the necessity of this tool, the steps the tool takes that go beyond existing models, a description of how the model operates, instructions on how to …

Neuropsychological Intra-Individual Variability In Traumatic Brain Injury: Clinical Utility, Classification, And Associations With Outcomes, Jeremy A. Feiger

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Traumatic brain injury (TBI) survivors experience a range of sequelae including neurobiological brain changes, cognitive impairment, psychological difficulties, and functional changes. Neuropsychological assessment after injury is used to characterize current strengths and weaknesses to inform prognosis and interventions. There is currently no reliable and consistent method of assessing and classifying injuries in the post-acute and chronic phases of moderate to severe TBI (msTBI) that is associated with long term psychosocial outcomes. This study aimed to combine the use of within-person variability on neuropsychological test batteries and in cognitive response latency, known as intra-individual variability (IIV), with a novel cognitive phenotyping …

A Mixed Method Examination Of Bipositivity As A Factor Protecting Cis, Trans, And Gender Expansive Plurisexual Women Against Harmful Sexual Violence Outcomes, Allison E. Cipriano

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Plurisexual women are more likely to experience sexual violence, post-traumatic stress (PTS), and alcohol use problems compared to women with single gender attraction. Disproportionately high rates of sexual violence may partially explain the prevalence of PTS and alcohol problems experienced by plurisexual women. Yet, research on sexual violence, PTS, and alcohol use problems have rarely specifically investigated these phenomena among plurisexual women. Researchers have identified a positive association between binegative experiences and risk of sexual violence among plurisexual women, suggesting that sexuality-based experiences may be connected to sexual violence victimization for this population. While identifying factors predicting risk of sexual …

Modeling And Design Parameter Optimization To Improve The Sensitivity Of A Bimorph Polysilicon-Based Mems Sensor For Helium Detection, Sulaiman Mohaidat, F. M. Alsaleem

Durham School of Architectural Engineering and Construction: Faculty Publications

Helium is integral in several industries, including nuclear waste management and semiconductors. Thus, developing a sensing method for detecting helium is essential to ensure the proper operation of such facilities. Several approaches can be used for helium detection, including based on the high thermal conductivity of helium, which is several times higher than air. This work utilizes the high thermal conductivity of helium to design and analyze a bimorph MEMS sensor for helium sensing applications. COMSOL Multiphysics software (version 6.2) is used to carry out this investigation. The sensor is constructed from poly-silicon and SiO₂ materials with a trenched …

Harassment, Stalking, And Violence On Campus: An Examination Of Persistent Cases, Madeline M. Eyer

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Stalking, harassment, dating violence, physical assault, and sexual assault continue to occur at elevated frequencies on college campuses. Most subjects cease engagement in these behaviors within a short period; however, a subset of individuals will engage in these intrusive behaviors over an extended length of time. While persistence has been examined in the stalking literature, only one study has examined risk factors of persistence in a college sample, and no studies have examined persistence for adverse behaviors outside of stalking (i.e., harassment, dating violence, physical assault, and sexual assault). Given the risk for physical and psychological harm toward targets as …

Cost Modeling Of Provision C.3 Green Stormwater Infrastructure Requirements For Residential Development In Concord, California, James Henry Mizutani

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

To assist the city of Concord in achieving its housing goals as presented in its general plan, while still meeting the stormwater discharge requirements laid out in the city’s municipal discharge permit, I worked with local developers and consultants to create a spreadsheet modeling tool that allows housing developers to estimate the total cost of green stormwater infrastructure needed to comply with local regulations.

This report contains a summary of the conditions leading to the necessity of this tool, the steps the tool takes that go beyond existing models, a description of how the model operates, instructions on how to …

Taxonomic Notes On Velvet Ants Of The Genus Timulla Ashmead, 1899 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae) In The United States Of America And Canada, George C. Waldren

Insecta Mundi

The exclusively New World velvet ant genus Timulla Ashmead, 1899 (Hymenoptera: Mutillidae: Mutillinae: Trogaspidiini) contains 180 species and ten subspecies. Most of these species are known from a single sex, and the validity of the subspecies has not been evaluated since their original description in 1937 and 1938. The Timulla fauna of the United States of America includes thirty species and eight subspecies, and the fauna of Canada includes three species. The faunas of these two countries were critically studied with the following results. Out of the eight total subspecies, seven were found to be structurally identical to and sympatric …

Internet-Based Data Platforms Re-Define The Distributions Of Some Large Crabronid Wasps In Arkansas (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), David E. Bowles

Insecta Mundi

The geographic distributions of three large wasps, Sphecius speciosus (Drury), Stictia carolina Fabricius, and Stizus brevipennis Walsh (Hymenoptera: Crabronidae), occurring in Arkansas are defined using museum specimens and three internet-based data platforms. The internet-based data platforms generally provided more county location records than museum records. Using data from internet sources for easily identified species can better serve to illustrate the known distributions for some species thus making for a powerful tool elucidating distributional patterns and conservation planning.

ZooBank registration. urn:lsid:zoobank.org:pub:DCAE9192-1765-40CD-952B-0A094F413991

Effect Of Antioxidant Additives And Recycling Agents On Performance Of Asphalt Binders And Mixtures, Phase I, Nitish R. Bastola, Mahdieh Khedmati, Hamzeh Haghshenas, Jamilla Teixeira

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

The use of reclaimed asphalt pavement (RAP) in asphalt mixtures has notably increased in recent times. Nevertheless, the inherent stiff and aged characteristics of RAP materials have consistently raised concerns regarding cracking performance. The use of recycling agents (RAs) has gained popularity in recent years since they can effectively modify the engineering properties of the aged asphalt binder. Besides that, the combination of RA with antioxidant (AO) additives has shown promise in enhancing the long-term performance of RAP mixtures. This research aims to investigate the effect of various RAs and one AO additive on performance of asphalt binders and high-RAP …

Development Of The Nebraska Department Of Transportation Winter Severity Index – Phase Ii, Mark Anderson, Curtis L. Walker, Thomas Kauzlarich

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

For the Nebraska Department of Transportation (NDOT), the Nebraska Winter Severity Index (NEWINS) provided an independent framework to calculate a winter season’s severity by categorizing individual winter storms. However, one of the greatest limitations of NEWINS is that it is not predictive. Thus, this study builds on the previously developed NEWINS by creating a predictive winter storm severity index known as NEWINS-Predictive (NEWINS-P). The quantitative precipitation forecast, snow accumulation, ice accumulation, and surface wind speed parameters from the National Digital Forecast Database (NDFD) are used to develop the five components composing the NEWINS-P framework. These components consist of snow severity …

A Peer Review Benchmark Portfolio For Architectural Design Studio: Situate, Matthew Miller

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

This portfolio examines a third-year architectural design studio that emphasizes the development of designs that consider site and context. As part of a four-year sequence to gaining a Bachelor of Science in Design, this studio takes on a critical discourse of the impact designs may have on the environments they inhabit, the community of people that they interact with, and the cultures and practices followed within a region. This research examined how different modes of teaching could help with building narratives and identifying the measurable impact a design would have on its environment, community, and culture through repetition of verbal …

Plas 439: Organic Farming And Food Systems Faculty-Led Inquiry Into Reflective Scholarly Teaching Benchmark Portfolio, Christian Stephenson

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

Organic Farming and Food Systems is a senior and graduate level course for students in the Department of Agronomy and Horticulture. This course was previously offered but has been significantly modified as I have taken on responsibility for the course. Goals for the course include student comprehension of the methods of organic and regenerative farming and the impacts of those methods on economic, environmental, and social sustainability. An additional goal is to build student competency in the evaluation of primary, secondary, and tertiary information resources and critical thinking surrounding issues in food production. Assessment for the course was through diverse …

Morphometric Analysis And Taxonomic Re-Evaluation Of Pepsis Cerberus Lucas And P. Elegans Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae: Pepsinae: Pepsini), Frank E. Kurczewski, Akira Shimizu, Diane H. Kiernan

Insecta Mundi

Hurd (1952) separated Pepsis cerberus Lucas from P. elegans Lepeletier (Hymenoptera: Pompilidae: Pepsinae: Pepsini) based on external morphology and biogeography. Vardy (2005) synonymized the familiar and historically well-documented P. cerberus and P. elegans, combining these Nearctic taxa with several Neotropical variants in an extremely broad definition of P. menechma Lepeletier. In doing so, Vardy (2005) breached the principle of nomenclatural stability. He ignored the prevailing usage and clearly violated articles 23.2, 23.3 and 23.9.1.2 of the ICZN (1999). Morphological differences, ecological divergence, and narrow sympatric geographic distribution of P. cerberus and P. elegans …

Nonlinear Classifiers For Wet-Neuromorphic Computing Using Gene Regulatory Neural Network, Adrian Ratwatte, Samitha Somathilaka, Sasitharan Balasubramaniam, Assaf A. Gilad

School of Computing: Faculty Publications

The gene regulatory network (GRN) of biological cells governs a number of key functionalities that enable them to adapt and survive through different environmental conditions. Close observation of the GRN shows that the structure and operational principles resemble an artificial neural network (ANN), which can pave the way for the development of wet-neuromorphic computing systems. Genes are integrated into gene-perceptrons with transcription factors (TFs) as input, where the TF concentration relative to half-maximal RNA concentration and gene product copy number influences transcription and translation via weighted multiplication before undergoing a nonlinear activation function. This process yields protein concentration as the …

What Climate Change Means For Nebraska

United States Environmental Protection Agency: Publications

Nebraska’s climate is changing. In the past century, most of the state has warmed by at least one degree (F). The soil is becoming drier, and rainstorms are becoming more intense. In the coming decades, flooding is likely to increase, yet summers are likely to become increasingly hot and dry, which would reduce yields of some crops, require farmers to use more water, and amplify some risks to human health.

Our climate is changing because the earth is warming. People have increased the amount of carbon dioxide in the air by 40 percent since the late 1700s. Other heat-trapping greenhouse …

Measurement Of Simplified Template Cross Sections Of The Higgs Boson Produced In Association With W Or Z Bosons In The H → B[] Decay Channel In Proton-Proton Collisions At √S =13 Tev, A. Tumasyan

Kenneth Bloom Publications

Differential cross sections are measured for the standard model Higgs boson produced in association with vector bosons (W, Z) and decaying to a pair of b quarks. Measurements are performed within the framework of the simplified template cross sections. The analysis relies on the leptonic decays of the W and Z bosons, resulting in final states with 0, 1, or 2 electrons or muons. The Higgs boson candidates are either reconstructed from pairs of resolved b-tagged jets, or from single large-radius jets containing the particles arising from two b quarks. Proton-proton collision data at √s = …

Bagging Improves The Performance Of Deep Learning-Based Semantic Segmentation With Limited Labeled Images: A Case Study Of Crop Segmentation For High-Throughput Plant Phenotyping, Yinglun Zhan, Yuzhen Zhou, Geng Bai, Yufeng Ge

Department of Statistics: Faculty Publications

Advancements in imaging, computer vision, and automation have revolutionized various fields, including field-based high-throughput plant phenotyping (FHTPP). This integration allows for the rapid and accurate measurement of plant traits. Deep Convolutional Neural Networks (DCNNs) have emerged as a powerful tool in FHTPP, particularly in crop segmentation—identifying crops from the background—crucial for trait analysis. However, the effectiveness of DCNNs often hinges on the availability of large, labeled datasets, which poses a challenge due to the high cost of labeling. In this study, a deep learning with bagging approach is introduced to enhance crop segmentation using high-resolution RGB images, tested on the …

Descspim: An Affordable And Easy-To-Build Light-Sheet Microscope Optimized For Tissue Clearing Techniques, Kohei Otomo, Takaki Omura, Yuki Nozawa, Steven J. Edwards, Yukihiko Sato, Yuri Saito, Shigehiro Yagishita, Hitoshi Uchida, Yuki Watakabe, Kiyotada Naitou, Rin Yanai, Naruhiko Sahara, Satoshi Takagi, Ryohei Katayama, Yusuke Iwata, Toshiro Shiokawa, Yoku Hayakawa, Kensuke Otsuka, Haruko Watanabe-Takano, Yuka Haneda, Shigetomo Fukuhara, Miku Fujiwara, Takenobu Nii, Chikara Meno, Naoki Takeshita, Kenta Yashiro, Juan Marcelo Rosales Rocabado, Masaru Kaku, Tatsuya Yamada, Yumiko Oishi, Hiroyuki Koike, Yinglan Cheng, Keisuke Sekine, Jun-Ichiro Koga, Kaori Sugiyama, Kenichi Kimura, Fuyuki Karube, Hyeree Kim, Ichiro Manabe, Tomomi Nemoto, Kazuki Tainaka, Akinobu Hamada, Hjalmar Brismar, Etsuo A. Susaki

Department of Biochemistry: Faculty Publications

Despite widespread adoption of tissue clearing techniques in recent years, poor access to suitable light-sheet fluorescence microscopes remains a major obstacle for biomedical end-users. Here, we present descSPIM (desktopequipped SPIM for cleared specimens), a low-cost ($20,000–50,000), lowexpertise (one-day installation by a non-expert), yet practical do-it-yourself light-sheet microscope as a solution for this bottleneck. Even the most fundamental configuration of descSPIM enables multi-color imaging of whole mouse brains and a cancer cell line-derived xenograft tumor mass for the visualization of neurocircuitry, assessment of drug distribution, and pathological examination by false-colored hematoxylin and eosin staining in a threedimensional manner. Academically open-sourced (https://github.com/dbsbjuntendo/ …

Understanding The Experience Of Bullying Of Students With Disabilities: A Phenomenological Study, Miriam Patricia Brenda Crinion

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

The purpose of the dissertation study was to increase understanding of the social experiences of students with disabilities. Students with disabilities are at increased risk of being involved in the bullying dynamic and experiencing greater social difficulties relative to their typically developing peers. Consequently, students with disabilities are more likely to report adverse mental health outcomes due to bullying involvement. The current literature suggests the effectiveness of traditional bullying intervention programming for students with disabilities is limited. Students with disabilities may also perceive traditional coping strategies to be inadequate and may have their own unique coping strategies to help them …

Centering Relationality And Care For Stewardship Of Indigenous Research Data, Miranda Belarde-Lewis, Sandra Littletree, Iisaaksiichaa Ross Braine, Kaitlin Srader, Nestor Guerrero, Carole L. Palmer

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The CARE Principles for Indigenous Data Governance are a seminal advance in the stewardship of Indigenous data. The Data Services for Indigenous Scholarship and Sovereignty (DSISS) project is working to guide how research libraries and data repositories can apply the CARE principles to support scholars of Indigenous culture and language. Building on a set of foundational case studies of Indigenous scholarship, this paper reports on analysis of formal engagement activities with scholars, Indigenous community members, and information and data professionals. We discuss three prominent themes—ownership, trust, and relational accountability—and their implications for concrete steps toward implementation of the CARE principles …

Investigating Nutrient Biomarkers Of Healthy Brain Aging: A Multimodal Brain Imaging Study, Christopher E. Zwilling, Jisheng Wu, Aron K. Barbey

Department of Psychology: Faculty Publications

The emerging field of Nutritional Cognitive Neuroscience aims to uncover specific foods and nutrients that promote healthy brain aging. Central to this effort is the discovery of nutrient profiles that can be targeted in nutritional interventions designed to promote brain health with respect to multimodal neuroimaging measures of brain structure, function, and metabolism. The present study therefore conducted one of the largest and most comprehensive nutrient biomarker studies examining multimodal neuroimaging measures of brain health within a sample of 100 older adults. To assess brain health, a comprehensive battery of well-established cognitive and brain imaging measures was administered, along with …

Impact Of The Department Of Defense Maternity Leave Policy Change On Retention And Postpartum Depression And The Air Force Postpartum Physical Fitness Policy Change On Physical Readiness Outcomes, Minette S. R. Herrick

Dissertations and Doctoral Documents, University of Nebraska-Lincoln, 2023–

Understanding the implications of health policy is paramount to support continued execution and further wide-spread distribution. The Department of Defense has made many recent family friendly policy changes in effort to improve the health and morale of the force. Two such policies were analyzed in this study. The first was the change in maternity leave, in 2016, from allotting women six weeks time off to twelve weeks time off in the postpartum period. The second was executed by the Air Force to permit postpartum women a longer duration for their required physical fitness assessment (an increase from six months to …

A Multi-Material Platform For Imaging Of Single Cell-Cell Junctions Under Tensile Load Fabricated With Two-Photon Polymerization, Jordan Rosenbohm, Grayson Minnick, Bahareh Tajvidi Safa, Amir M. Esfahani, Xiaowei Jin, Haiwei Zhai, Nickolay V. Lavrik, Ruiguo Yang

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Faculty Publications

We previously reported a single-cell adhesion micro tensile tester (SCAμTT) fabricated from IP-S photoresin with two-photon polymerization (TPP) for investigating the mechanics of a single cell-cell junction under defined tensile loading. A major limitation of the platform is the autofluorescence of IP-S, the photoresin for TPP fabrication, which significantly increases background signal and makes fluorescent imaging of stretched cells difficult. In this study, we report the design and fabrication of a new SCAμTT platform that mitigates autofluorescence and demonstrate its capability in imaging a single cell pair as its mutual junction is stretched. By employing a two-material design using IP-S …

Theory Of An Automatic Seepage Meter And Ramifications For Applications, V. A. Zlotnik, D. K. Solomon, D. P. Genereux, T. E. Gilmore, C. E. Humphrey, A. R. Mittelstet, A. V. Zlotnik

Conservation and Survey Division: Faculty and Staff Publications

No abstract provided.

Investigating Small Drinking Water System Technical Capacity To Treat For Pfas, Chloe J. Yoder, Kaycie Lane

Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering: Faculty Publications

Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) presents technical challenges in small systems where advanced drinking water treatment implementation is difficult. Publicly available data were used to examine technical treatment capacity for PFAS in the US, using Nebraska as a pilot. Of 1312 PWSs in Nebraska, 441 have technologies capable of removing PFAS from drinking water. Reverse osmosis was the most common treatment technology in Nebraska with 277 total systems using this technology with, 194 PWSs with RO serving populations of <= 100 people. Fifty-two PWSs had granular activated carbon, 47 had ion exchange and 62 had ultraviolet, with UV being primarily used for disinfection. We found PWSs had different technology deployment methods, several systems had “significant deficiencies” reported in management and operation evaluations, and age and previous water quality violations were not correlated to treatment evaluations. The developed methodology models utilizing publicly available data for contaminants across the US.

Cereal Rye Cover Crop Termination At Or Before Soybean Planting Has Minimal Effect On Soybean Yield Across The Midwestern Us, Tatiane Severo Silva, Spyridon Mourtzinis, Anthony Justin Mcmechan, Gabriela Inveninato Carmona, Bruce D. Potter, Kelley J. Tilmon, Louis S. Hesler, Nicholas J. Seiter, Robert Wright, Shannon L. Osborne, Thomas E. Hunt, Shawn P. Conley

Department of Entomology: Faculty Publications

Context: Interest is growing among farmers in the Midwestern US region in the potential benefits of establishing cereal rye (Secale cereale L.) as a cover crop. However, they are concerned about the implications and potential trade-offs due to this practice. Objective: We aimed to evaluate the effects of cereal rye cover crop termination at or before soybean planting on soybean (Glycine max [L.] Merr.) seed yield. Methods: Field experiments were conducted from 2019 to 2021 across 28 location-years in the Midwestern US. Treatments consisted of no cereal rye, cereal rye termination before soybean planting, and termination at planting. …

Memoryscapes: A Study Of Memory And Experience In Architecture, Jacob Granger

Architecture Masters of Science Program: Theses

Thesis statement

Architecture and urban spaces are fundamental in shaping both personal and collective memories, serving as the physical manifestations of narratives that define and inform community identity and individual experiences. This thesis asserts that urban design and architectural features extend beyond their utilitarian functions to actively craft and influence these memories. By intertwining intentional design with memory, architecture not only reflects but also molds our understanding of communal identity and historical narratives. This perspective offers a unique exploration of the interplay between tangible structures and the intangible experiences they foster, illustrating how architecture does not merely mirror reality but …