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Honors Is More Than A Grade: Removing The Experiential Ceiling In Honors, Justin L. Rheubert, Marisa Prisco, Paige A. Grum, Abby L. Kalkstein

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

The stress created by academic pressure may prevent honors students from exploring curricula beyond that required by their majors. Challenged with additional workload and extracurricular requirements, students in honors often confront added stress caused by a desire to perform favorably in all academic pursuits. This pressure may result in hesitancy to explore new ideas, nurture curiosity, or break free from the rigors of a defined program of study—the opposite of what honors pedagogy and practice purport. This essay presents the process of converting a weighted grading system to pass/fail in an effort to provide students with opportunities for academic exploration …

You Are Not Alone: An Innovative, Collaborative Approach To Student Wellness And Mental Health In Honors, Sheryl Ford, Joshua Stockley

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This essay presents an innovative, proactive solution to the growing mental health needs of honors students. Authors discuss the ways in which one program at a large public university revised curriculum, created programming, and formed strategic partnership with the university’s Marriage and Family Therapy Program to understand and address student mental health in honors. Acknowledging a growing national trend of depression, anxiety, and suicide among college students, authors posit that dynamic outreach and dialogue with students about their struggles with assignments, activities, and academic expectations can create effective strategies for nurturing student development and well-being.

Charting A Course For Belonging: Creating An Honors Mindfulness Learning Community, Kristy Spear, Gayathry Prabhakaran

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

In today’s post-pandemic world, a sense of belonging within and in the larger relational world is something that many people struggle with, particularly those individuals leaving home to enter college. Socially engaged mindfulness can connect individuals with their breath, thoughts, emotions, and one another to promote and support well-being. This essay presents a programmatic overview of a Mindfulness Learning Community (MLC) in honors. Created for incoming first-year students (N = 31) to aid in their transition to college life, the multi-semester academic, social, and experiential-based learning community aims to teach honors students the psychological and physiological value of mindful practice, …

Mental Health Among Honors College Students: Evidence From College Entry Essays, Mohini Gobin, Jaclyn Kopel, Eric Osborne-Christenson, Anna Shostya

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

This study explores the effect of preexisting mental health issues on college students’ academic performance. Using unique data from the honors college at a medium-sized urban private university, authors examine college entry essays (N = 1,062) in five classes (two pre-pandemic and three post-pandemic), as well as advisors’ (N = 7) notes. Mental health (MH) concerns are grouped into six non-mutually exclusive categories: depression/anxiety, neurodiversity/learning disabilities, identity-related concerns, grief/loss, trauma, and the mental health of others whose lives impact the student. The study finds that the number of honors students citing mental health in their entrance essays more …

The Well-Being Of Honors College Students Compared To Non-Honors College Students Accounting For Prior Gifted Experience, Hannah C. Dewald, Allyson S. Graf

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

Student wellness is a growing concern among educators. Previous studies on the well-being of honors students as compared to other undergraduates result in mixed findings. This study examines the trajectory of gifted programming in education and specific challenges to the collegiate experience, presenting differences between honors students (N = 49) and non-honors peers (N = 138) using two well-being indicators (academic anxiety and academic self-efficacy) and three related factors (perceived past school competitiveness, maladaptive perfectionism, and pressure due to labeling). While authors posit that honors students may have higher academic anxiety and lower self-efficacy than those not enrolled …

Face-To-Face: A Sociologist Looks At College Students' Mental Health, Maureen Kelleher

Journal of the National Collegiate Honors Council Online Archive

While both individual honors programs and their broader campus communities have implemented new initiatives and intervention strategies to address undergraduate mental health, significant needs remain unmet and concerns unaddressed about the long-term implications for students. This paper provides a framework for understanding the current (2023) environment on many campuses by presenting national legislation that shapes campus response, offering cases of specific institutional responses to crisis, and exploring the impact of face-to-face interaction between faculty and students in classrooms. Awareness of these three levels of response—national, campus, and classroom—equips and empowers the honors community to understand and effectively deal with myriad …

Producer Services: An Engine For High-Wage Job Growth, October 2024

Bureau of Business Research Publications

Producer Services: An Engine for High-Wage Job Growth from the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska, October 2024.

Subterranean Medicinal Bottles Are Treasures That Reveal The Growth Of Lincoln's Early Drug Stores, Mark Griep, June Weber, Erik Schulz, Effie Athanassopoulos

Department of Anthropology: Faculty Publications

Archeologists unearthed medicine bottles embossed with the names of nine early Lincoln (Nebraska) drug stores, giving insight into the rapid growth of pharmacies and health care from the 1880s up to the Pure Food and Drug Act of 1906.

Blanket Statements, Issue 165, Fall 2024

Blanket Statements: News Publication of the American Quilt Study Group

Blanket Statements, Issue 165, Fall 2024

On Province And Empire In My Ántonia And One Of Ours: Cather’S 1922 The Waste Land, Paul A. Olson

Department of English: Faculty Publications

Willa Cather profoundly alters her attitude towards the American experiment, World War I, and the prospect of cultural pluralism in America between her 1918 My Antonia and her 1922 One of Ours. In doing so, she addresses the issue of what kind of culture America should have: a monistic one such as Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson advocated or a pluralistic one. In My Antonia, set during the period of Great Plains settlement but extending up into World War I, she presents an intact American cultural pluralism: non-English speaking European cultures continuing their positive practices absent the monarchic repression …

Understanding Session Disparities And Advancing Experiential Learning In Turfgrass Management, Luqi Li

UNL Faculty Course Portfolios

PLAS 229: Introductory Turfgrass Management Laboratory is a sophomore-level course focusing on the practical skills required in turfgrass management. This portfolio documents the teaching methods, course materials, and an analysis of student learning outcomes with a focus on understanding disparities in student performance across sessions and enhancing practical skills through applied activities. Statistical analysis revealed that Session A outperformed Session B on two key field quizzes. This disparity is attributed to logistical differences: students in Session A attended the hands-on, field-based learning opportunities, while Session B faced scheduling conflicts that limited engagement with critical content. These findings underscore the importance …

Water Current, Volume 56, No. 3, Fall 2024

Water Current Newsletter

No abstract provided.

Summer- And Fall-Planted Cover Crops Across Nebraska: Assessing Performance Using Aerial Imagery And Evaluating Short-Term Soil Impacts, Grace Emperatriz Pacheco Jiron

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

Cover crops are widely recognized for improving soil health and promoting sustainability in agricultural systems. Despite the increasing use of monitoring tools like aerial imagery, their application in evaluating summer-planted cover crops in the Great Plains remains limited, hindering effective management strategies. Fall-planted cover crops provide long-term environmental benefits, including enhanced soil quality and erosion control; however, understanding their short-term effects on soil properties is crucial for encouraging adoption. This study assessed summer- and fall-planted cover crops across Nebraska, integrating aerial imagery and soil health analyses.

Over two years, fifteen summer-planted monocultures and five mixtures were evaluated for establishment, biomass …

Reimagining Science As A Natural Tool For Connection: A Restorative Approach, Zachary C. Schafer, Lawrence C. Scharmann

Department of Teaching, Learning, and Teacher Education: Faculty Publications

This paper explores a restorative-type intervention with a high school student who is suspended from school for repeated threats to other students. Throughout the paper, we explore the use of restorative practices in the context of science teaching. Science in process and content is used in tandem with various restorative practices to provide the student a lens through which to better understand what led to her suspension, learn science content, and find perspective change in the process as it pertains to her developing sense of self. The methods and tools are then transformed into practical use through a modified version …

Voltage-Controlled Spintronics And Fundamentals Of Magnetoelectricity In Magnetoelectric Antiferromagnetic Chromia, Syed Qamar Abbas Shah

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

Spintronics, which exploits both the spin and charge of electrons, offers a path to more energy-efficient and functionally enhanced devices compared to traditional CMOS electronics. A significant development in this field is voltage-controlled spintronics, where electric fields manipulate magnetic and spin states without the large power dissipation seen in current-based technologies. Among the materials explored for this purpose, magnetoelectric (ME) antiferromagnetic (AFM) materials show promise for energy-efficient, non-volatile memory technologies. Controlling AFM ordering via voltage application is essential for realizing these devices.

This dissertation focuses on ME AFM materials, specifically chromia (Cr₂O₃), to advance voltage-controlled spintronics. …

An Investigation Into The Documental History Of Immigrants From Russia And Latin America In The State Of Nebraska, Elena Thomson

Honors Program: Senior Projects (Public)

The research questions in this essay ask whether or not the Nebraska State Archives contains literature in the Russian and Spanish languages. These documents, and others written in English on the same topic, are introduced and analyzed throughout the essay, exploring the history of immigrants from Russia and Latin America. As well as history, the documents delve into the current state of these immigrant groups, and how their traditions have changed Nebraska and continue to influence it today. The essay contains two sections: the first about immigrants from Russia, the second about those from Latin America. At the end of …

Classifying Open Access Business Models, Tasha Mellins-Cohen

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

The proliferation of open access (OA) business models has been rapid, presenting challenges for stakeholders in communicating and working effectively with one another. This article aims to clarify terminologies and address the inconsistencies and gaps in previous attempts to categorize OA models, supporting informed decision-making. It presents five core types, each with distinct characteristics and implications for funding, equity, and implementation. Operating at the level of individual pieces of content, transactional models expose authors to the financial implications of their decisions to make content OA; they often must pay out of their own funds. Driven by negotiations between libraries or …

Invasive Forest Pest Education Through Identification, Reporting, And Children’S Introduction Brochures, Lauren E. Keefe

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

Forest pest insects, whether native or non-native, can be extremely detrimental to the health of a landscape, and can contribute to massive ecological, economic, and cultural losses. Unless directly exposed to the damage these pests cause, many people do not seek to become informed on the insects. A series of brochures was thus created as a collaboration between the online UNL M.S. in Entomology requirements and a need for updated Nebraska Forest Service Forest Health brochures. These brochures focus on invasive forest insect identification and reporting, as well as introducing the concepts of the invasives to children.

Five invasive insects …

South Carolina Verifiable Training Course Presented By The Department Of Pesticide Regulation [Master's Project Slides], Stoney Bachman

Department of Entomology: Distance Master of Science Projects

Materials presenting the South Carolina verifiable training course Presented by the Department of Pesticide Regulation.

Includes a variety of supplemental materials.

A Systems Biology Approach To Predict Phenotypes From Genotypes For Plants And Bacteria, Niaz Bahar Chowdhury

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

Predicting phenotypes from genotypes is a central challenge in systems biology in understanding how organisms respond to environmental and genetic changes. To address this, genome-scale metabolic models (GSMs) integrated with omics data and machine learning provide a comprehensive framework to connect genotype to phenotype. This dissertation utilizes these approaches in plants and bacterial systems, revealing key metabolic adaptations. In maize, a root-specific GSM reveals metabolic reprogramming under nitrogen stress, offering strategies for improving stress tolerance. Building on this, a multi-organ maize GSM of temperature stress identifies metabolic bottlenecks, providing targets to enhance crop resilience. Similarly, in rice, a grain-specific GSM …

Intrinsic And Environmental Drivers Of Pairwise Cohesion In Wild Canis Social Groups, John F. Benson

School of Natural Resources: Faculty Publications

Animals within social groups respond to costs and benefits of sociality by adjusting the proportion of time they spend in close proximity to other individuals in the group (cohesion). Variation in cohesion between individuals, in turn, shapes important group-level processes such as subgroup formation and fission–fusion dynamics. Although critical to animal sociality, a comprehensive understanding of the factors influencing cohesion remains a gap in our knowledge of cooperative behavior in animals. We tracked 574 individuals from six species within the genus Canis in 15 countries on four continents with GPS telemetry to estimate the time that pairs of individuals within …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: September 27, 2024, Eric Thompson

Leading Economic Indicator Reports

The Leading Economic Indicator-Nebraska fell by 0.69% in August 2024, after rising in both June and July. The decrease in the leading indicator, designed to predict economic growth six months into the future, implies that the Nebraska economy will grow at a moderate pace through the end of 2024 and in early 2025. There was a decrease in manufacturing hours worked in August, as weakness in the national manufacturing sector spread to Nebraska. There was also a drop in building permits for single-family homes, suggesting that state homebuilding activity remains subdued.

A New Invasive Lepidosaphes Armored Scale (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae) For Florida: First Records, Natural Enemies, And An Identification Key, Erin C. Powell, Mark Zenoble, Douglass R. Miller, Benjamin B. Normark, Gregory A. Evans

Insecta Mundi

The invasive armored scale, Lepidosaphes laterochitinosa Green 1925 (Hemiptera: Coccomorpha: Diaspididae), was found in the Florida landscape for the first time in November 2022 and is now known from two south Florida counties: Broward and Miami-Dade. In Florida thus far, this polyphagous species has been found on Epipremnum pinnatum (L.) Engl. (Araceae), Dracaena Vand. ex. L. (Asparagaceae), and Breynia disticha J. R. Forst. and G. Forst. (Phyllanthaceae), all common landscape ornamentals. New parasitoid host records are provided for Encarsia lounsburyi (Berlese and Paoli), Encarsia citrina (Craw), and Aphytis lingnanensis Compere (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) that emerged from L. laterochitinosa in Broward …

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators: September 27, 2024

Bureau of Business Research Publications

Nebraska Monthly Economic Indicators, September 27, 2024, from the Bureau of Business Research at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.

The Prognostic Significance Of Androgen Receptor Expression In Gliomas, Chi Zhang, Nan Zhao, Rubayat Khan, Ming-Yang Hung, Chi Zhang, Shuo Wang, Tony J.C. Wang, Chi Lin

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Androgen receptor (AR) overexpression has been identified in gliomas and its stem cells, suggesting that AR plays an important role in tumor carcinogenesis. The prognostic significance of AR overexpression in gliomas remains unknown. AR mRNA expression in gliomas and relevant clinical data were obtained from The Cancer Genome Atlas and Chinese Glioma Genome Atlas databases. AR expression levels were compared across gliomas of different histopathologic grades and molecular subtypes. Kaplan–Meier analyses in patients with different AR expression levels were investigated for the potential prognostic values of AR. Compared with normal brain tissue, gliomas show significantly higher AR mRNA expression ( …

Targeted Weed Management Of Palmer Amaranth Using Robotics And Deep Learning (Yolov7), Amlan Balabantaray, Shaswati Behera, Cheetown Liew, Nipuna Chamara, Mandeep Singh, Amit J. Jhala, Santosh Pitla

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Effective weed management is a significant challenge in agronomic crops which necessitates innovative solutions to reduce negative environmental impacts and minimize crop damage. Traditional methods often rely on indiscriminate herbicide application, which lacks precision and sustainability. To address this critical need, this study demonstrated an AI-enabled robotic system, Weeding robot, designed for targeted weed management. Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri S. Watson) was selected as it is the most troublesome weed in Nebraska. We developed the full stack (vision, hardware, software, robotic platform, and AI model) for precision spraying using YOLOv7, a state-of-the-art object detection deep learning technique. The …

Climate Smart Agriculture, J. David Aiken

Cornhusker Economics

There are several programs encouraging producers to reduce their carbon intensity, including United States Department of Agriculture climate-smart agriculture programs, the 2024 Nebraska Climate Action Plan, and the 2024 Nitrogen Reduction Incentive Act. The hope is that producers with lower carbon intensity (CI) scores will receive a premium for their products. Producers would be well advised to learn more about these programs, as reducing carbon intensity in agriculture seems to be an emerging agricultural policy trend that will be with us for some time to come.

United States Department Of Homeland Security Scientific Integrity Policy

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

United States Department of Homeland Security Scientific Integrity Policy

Immunity And Protective Efficacy Of A Plant-Based Tobacco Mosaic Virus-Like Nanoparticle Vaccine Against Influenza A Virus In Mice, Adthakorn Madapong, Erika M. Petro-Turnquist, Richard J. Webby, Allison A. Mccormick, Eric A. Weaver

School of Biological Sciences: Faculty Publications

Background: The rapid production of influenza vaccines is crucial to meet increasing pandemic response demands. Here, we developed plant-made vaccines comprising centralized consensus influenza hemagglutinin (HA-con) proteins (H1 and H3 subtypes) conjugated to a modified plant virus, tobacco mosaic virus (TMV) nanoparticle (TMV-HA-con). Methods: We compared immune responses and protective efficacy against historical H1 or H3 influenza A virus infections among TMV-HA-con, HA-con protein combined with AddaVax™ adjuvant, and whole-inactivated virus vaccine (Fluzone®). Results: Immunogenicity studies demonstrated robust IgG, IgM, and IgA responses in the TMV-HA-con and HA-con protein vaccinated groups, with relatively low induction of interferon (IFN)-γ⁺ T-cell …

Irrigation Pumping Plants: Energy Consumption And Pumping Plant Performance [Class Handout], Derek M. Heeren, Saleh Taghvaeian, Abia Katimbo, Xin Qiao

Department of Agricultural and Biological Systems Engineering: Faculty Publications

Irrigation can be a large contributor to energy consumption on an irrigated farm. It is important to understand factors that impact irrigation energy use and to identify opportunities to reduce energy consumption. This class handout introduces a set of equations for calculating energy consumption for an irrigation pumping plant based on flow conditions and pump efficiency. It also presents typical values for motor performance (including both electric motors and internal combustion engines) in both SI and USCS units. Finally, the handout introduces the concept of a field evaluation of an irrigation pumping plant along with the Nebraska Pumping Plant Performance …