Digital Commons Network^™

Details Matter: Getting People Involved, Cheryl A. Burkhart-Kriesel

Cornhusker Economics

Sometimes getting people into the habit of community participation can be a bit challenging, but two aspects can help make this a little easier. The first is to make sure that there are no organizational barriers in participating, and the second is to realize that community participation happens on several levels and that each level has certain expectations. When these expectations are clearly stated, people are more easily motivated to get involved and stay involved.

Setting up engagement from the beginning requires thought and attention to detail. It can be insignificant things, like choosing a date or picking a location, …

Let Them Speak: The Case For Parental Rights As Educative Speech, Tavia Bruxelles Mcallister

Nebraska Law Bulletin (Selected Issues)

Outlines a case for parental rights as educative speech.

Temporal Variability In Grassland Leaf Water Content Is Strongly And Similarly Dependent On Soil Moisture Among Dominant Grasses, Henry K. Joniak, Andrew Felton

RURALS: Review of Undergraduate Research in Agricultural and Life Sciences

Vegetation in semi-arid rangeland ecosystems is typically characterized by the presence of a few dominant grass species that control ecosystem processes and, by extension, ecosystem services such as forage production. Thus, understanding and comparing the responses of dominant forage species to climatic variability can lend insight into how functioning and services in these ecosystems will respond to climate change. Here, we designed a transect-based study to assess and compare the temporal relationship between soil moisture (volumetric water content, VWC) and a key functional trait (leaf water content, LWC) among two of the dominant forage grass species in Southwestern Montana. Sampling …

The Official List Of The Birds Of Nebraska: 2024, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The duties of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (NOURC 2010) include:

A. The committee shall publish an official list of the birds of Nebraska.
B. The official list will include all those species whose occurrence has been reported in Nebraska (and approved by the NOURC).
C. The committee shall keep the official list current.
D. The committee shall publish a list of species for which details are requested with every sighting reported.

The 2024 NOURC has completed the above-described duties, and the following is a result of its endeavors.

The “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska” was last …

First Confirmed Nebraska Breeding Record Of The Common Raven (Corvus Corax) Since The 19th Century, Eugene A. Huryn, Jacob C. Cooper

Nebraska Bird Review

In Nebraska, the Common Raven was likely widespread prior to 1900, being codistributed with the American Bison (Bison bison). Records in this time are spotty, but consistent. Thomas Say reported a nearly fledged brood—the only confirmed breeding record in this period—at Fort Calhoun in Washington County on May 12, 1820. A Common Raven was collected at Fort Randall, on the Missouri River just north of the modern Nebraska–South Dakota border, in the fall of 1857 during the Lieutenant Warren Expeditions. Another specimen, now lost, was collected by J. B. Hasty in 1899 in Arapahoe, Furnas County. Bruner et …

Summer Field Report, June–July 2025, W. Ross Silcock

Nebraska Bird Review

I have mentioned previously the breeding categories that are available to observers in eBird checklists. This database is becoming more comprehensive and useful, and I encourage observers to use this eBird feature.

Usefulness of Merlin-derived checklists continues to be an issue. As an example, Merlin seems to love White-winged Doves; there were 52 undocumented Merlin reports of this species this summer, no doubt some correctly identified and acceptable if observers had taken a minute to add even minimal observation details to support Merlin’s identifications.

A vexing issue for me is determining the status of midsummer (i.e. between spring and fall …

The Nebraska Bird Review (September 2025) 93(3), Whole Issue

Nebraska Bird Review

Summer Field Report, June–July 2025, by W. Ross Silcock

First Confirmed Nebraska Breeding Record of the Common Raven (Corvus corax) since the 19th Century, by Eugene A. Huryn and Jacob C. Cooper

2024 (36th) Report of the NOU Records Committee, by Mark A. Brogie

The Official List of the Birds of Nebraska: 2024, compiled by Mark A. Brogie

Subscription and Organization Information

2024 (36th) Report Of The Nou Records Committee, Mark A. Brogie

Nebraska Bird Review

The functions and methods of the Nebraska Ornithologists’ Union Records Committee (NOURC) are described in its bylaws (NOURC 2010). The committee’s purpose is to provide a procedure for documenting unusual bird sightings and to establish a list of all documented birds for Nebraska. Species for which the NOURC seeks documentation (NOURC Review List) can be found at the NOU website: www.NOUbirds.org.

Starting in 2020, the NOURC decided to deal mainly with those species deemed as Accidental on the “Official List of the Birds of Nebraska.” Casual species and out-of- range species are now summarized in the “Seasonal Reports” of the …

Futurescape Libraries Ai Toolkit, Keith Webster

Copyright, Fair Use, Scholarly Communication, etc.

A toolkit developed to explore scenario-specific strategies and activities that research libraries can undertake to prepare for various possible AI-influenced futures. The toolkit integrates the ARL/CNI AI Scenarios published in spring 2024 along with priorities trialed and refined by strategic thinkers working directly in, or adjacent to, the research library field during a Strategic Implications forum held December 7–8, 2024, in Washington, DC.

Repair/Preservation Of Concrete Compression Members In Bridges Using Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (Uhpc), Mohammed Hedia, George Morcous

Nebraska Department of Transportation: Research Reports

As of 2024, approximately 36% of bridges across the United States require repair or replacement, with 7% classified as structurally deficient. The estimated cost to address these deficiencies exceeds $260 billion. In recent years, Ultra-High-Performance Concrete (UHPC) has emerged as a repair material for infrastructure preservation, drawing increased attention from transportation agencies and researchers worldwide. The Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) has notably advocated for UHPC’s adoption in bridge preservation initiatives, recognizing its exceptional mechanical properties and durability.

This report presents a comprehensive literature review on the application of UHPC as a repair and strengthening material for bridge compression members. While …

Assessment Of Microbial Quality And Safety, Including Aflatoxin B1, In Buckwheat Flour And Groats, La Fontaine Bahatsi

Department of Food Science and Technology: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Buckwheat (Fagopyrum esculentum), a gluten-free pseudocereal, has gained popularity in global food markets for its nutritional value and functional properties. However, despite its health-promoting potential, buckwheat is vulnerable to microbial contamination and mycotoxin accumulation during cultivation, processing, and storage. These factors present significant food safety concerns that remain understudied, particularly in North America.

This study investigated the microbiological quality and mycotoxin contamination of buckwheat flour and groats collected from different suppliers via online sourcing. Samples were collected in two consecutive years (2024-2025). Microbiological quality, including aerobic plate counts (APC), Enterobacteriaceae, coliforms, E. coli, yeasts, and molds, was evaluated …

An Economic Assessment Of Precision Conservation With On-Farm Precision Experiment Data, Karina A. Schoengold, Badri Khanal, Taro Mieno, David S. Bullock

Cornhusker Economics

Using a novel dataset that includes within field variation in productivity, we find that partial field retirement for a prairie strip can not only provide conservation benefits, but can also be economically beneficial. We note that these results are for a single field with one year of data, and that additional years of production and fields are essential to determine how much these results can be generalized. We also note that precision systems can be costly, and a comparison of outcomes with and without this information is essential to determine if investing in such systems is profitable. However, variable rate …

Hunting Lease Comparisons For Wild Game Across Nebraska In 2025, Jim Jansen

Cornhusker Economics

The Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Survey and Report 2024-2025 provides insight into recent trends in the market value of land and cash rental across the state. Each year, the special feature section covers topics on new or emerging issues related to the agricultural land industry in Nebraska. These topics reflect the interest expressed by panel members and readership of the Nebraska Farm Real Estate Market Highlights Reports. The special feature section in 2025 focuses on hunting rental arrangements in Nebraska, including the types of wild game commonly hunted and the value associated with leasing these rights.

Landowners seeking to …

Trump Administration Trade Policy: A Historical Perspective And Key Questions & Takeaways, Matthew P. Schaefer

Yeutter Institute International Trade Policy Review

Offers a historical perspective with key questions and takeaways about the Trump Administration's trade policy. Covers the periods of the first Trump Presidency (2017-2021), the Biden Administration (2021-2025), and the second Trump Administration (2025-).

Four Nebraska Public Power District (Nppd) Irrigation Electricity Purchase Options, Matt Stockton

Cornhusker Economics

Farm managers are destined to face a myriad of choices while looking for and seeking the right balance between methods and outcomes that satisfy their individual farm’s needs. Successful farms require productivity, profitability, and continuity. This holds true for the many production choices made throughout the year. One of these opportunities is the purchase of electricity for irrigation. Nebraska is a unique state in that its electric power is generated and delivered by public power companies. The largest single entity in that system is NPPD, which serves all or part of 84 of the 93 counties within the state. NPPD …

Managing Undesirable Vegetation Transitions On The Landscape: A Study Of Perceptions Of Conservation Professionals In Nebraska And Montana, Anubrata Deka, Simanti Banerjee, Theresa Floyd

Cornhusker Economics

In this bulletin, we have provided a descriptive analysis of the perceptions of conservation professionals in Nebraska and Montana, two states where the rangeland ecosystem is facing a large-scale transition from native grasses to invasive trees and grasses. This analysis provides an initial understanding of the different factors that can influence adoption of policy initiatives by conservation professionals. When considered alongside insights into the management behaviors of ranchers—whose productivity and profitability are adversely affected by these transitions—this information helps form a more comprehensive picture of the ecological and economic impacts of UVTs, as well as strategies for their mitigation. In …

Within My Glass Doors, Natsume Sōseki, Iwao Matsuhara, Edwin T. Iglehart

Zea E-Books Collection

During his last years (1915–1916) Natsume Sōseki was often troubled by the stomach ailment that eventually took his life at age 49. Constrained by his illness to remain at his home in Waseda, a Tokyo suburb, he nevertheless continued to work on his novels and to write columns for publication in the Asahi Shimbun newspaper.

Within My Glass Doors collects those 39 columns; in them he discusses his visitors, his illness, memories of his childhood and family, and interactions with colleagues new and old. The most autobiographical and revealing of all his writings, this collection of essays displays his remarkable …

Parliamentary Procedure Interactive Notebook: Newly Revised, P. Troy White, Amie Carter

Department of Agricultural Leadership, Education, and Communication: Faculty Publications

An interactive notebook for teaching fundamentals of parliamentary procedure. Over 120 pages of content to help teach correct principles of this critical organizational management skill. P. Troy White is a Professional Registered Parliamentarian and a Certified Parliamentarian, ensuring that the content included follows the 12th Edition of Robert's Rules of Order.

Paying The Education Debt: How Community Colleges Can Lead In Restoring Higher Education Access In U.S. Prisons, Tammy Zimmer

Instructional Leadership Abstracts

Discusses paying education debt with respect to how community colleges can lead in restoring higher education access in United States prisons.

"The question is no longer can we provide higher education in prison, it’s will we. For those of us already engaged in this work, the answer is clear. I invite you to join us."

Mapping Sedimentary And Crustal Thicknesses In The Northern Atlantic Ocean From Public Domain Geophysical Data, Hermione Lofton

College of Arts and Sciences: Undergraduate Theses and Other Student Projects

The Northern Atlantic Ocean is a complex region that contains many inactive and active tectonic features. These features include the Jan Mayen Microcontinent, Jan Mayen Fracture Zone, Aegir Ridge, Kolbeinsey Ridge, the Greenland-Iceland-Faroe Ridge, the Voring Plateau, the Voring Spur, and the Iceland Hotspot. This project is motivated by the region’s complex geology and its highly debated tectonic history and disputed crustal affinity. This study aims to evaluate tectonic elements of the Northern Atlantic Ocean with three major objectives. The first objective is to develop a map of crustal thickness from publicly available seismic refraction data. For the second objective, …

Unl Emeriti And Retirees Association Newsletter, August 2025

UNL Emeriti and Retirees Association: Newsletters and Other Materials

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Emeriti and Retirees Association Newsletter, August 2025

President's message: Continuing our commitment, Pam Edwards

Welcome to new members

Wake up your well-being

Book review, Atlas of the Heart

A look ahread at programming

Recapping past programming

Memory moments

Two Essays On Index-Based Risk Management In U.S. Rangeland And Livestock Production, Wajdi Belgacem

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

This dissertation investigates two distinct but complementary dimensions of risk management in United States rangeland agriculture. Essay 1 measures spatial variation in basis risk within the Pasture, Rangeland, and Forage (PRF) rainfall-index program for 176 Nebraska grid cells (1988–2023). By linking official NOAA rainfall indices with 30-m Rangeland Analysis Platform biomass estimates, we find rainfall–forage correlations that peak at 0.45 but display pronounced heterogeneity. The probability that neither insured interval triggers during an actual forage loss averages 12%, rising to nearly 30% in several Sandhills cells, whereas optimally pairing late-spring and summer intervals reduces complete misses below 10%. These results …

Traffic Prediction For Research And Education Networks: Anomaly-Aware Deep Learning And Benchmarking, Mohammad Arafath Uddin Shariff

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Research and Education Networks (RENs) and High-Performance Computing (HPC) environments are critical infrastructures for modern scientific discovery, demanding sustained high-throughput and low-latency data transfers. Unlike commercial networks, RENs exhibit unique traffic characteristics, including predominant “elephant flows,” inherent burstiness, and complex temporal-spatial dynamics often decoupled from human-driven cycles. Traditional traffic forecasting methods, tailored for commercial Wide Area Networks (WANs), consistently fail to capture these distinct REN dynamics, leading to inefficient resource management and potential impediments to scientific progress.

This thesis addresses this critical gap by developing and validating a robust, scalable, and anomaly-aware traffic forecasting framework specifically tailored for REN/HPC networks. …

Hardware And Software Design For A Portable Surgical Training Simulator, Victoria Nelson

Department of Mechanical and Materials Engineering: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

More than 51 million surgeries are performed on patients annually in the United States. That number grows to 310 million surgeries performed globally each year. Most surgeons go through a minimum of five years of residency – where they train and hone their surgical skills. It is important during this time, and throughout their careers, that they get plenty of practice. Surgical training is time intensive, expensive, and frequently under-resourced. There are finite amounts of surgical training modules for students to share at their facilities. The problem of getting adequate surgical training time continues to exist after surgeons begin their …

Nebline, August/September 2025

NEBLINE Newsletter Archive from Nebraska Extension in Lancaster County

Contents

Summertime’s Natural Light Show: Fireflies by Kait Chapman

Insect Science with Kids: Bug Collecting as a Tool to Learn

The Perfect Partnership: EFNEP and SNAP-Ed Join Forces for Lifelong Nutrition and Health by Emily Gratopp

Recipe of the month by Emily Gratopp: Fruit salsa & cinnamon chips

Southeast nebraska Pasture & Acreage Expo

Southeast Nebraska Alfalfa & Wheat Expo

Landlord/Tenant Cash Rent workshop

Vegetable Gardening in the Fall by Mary Jane Frogge

GRO Big Red virtual learning series

2025 perennial plant of the year: Blue mountain mint (Pycnanthemum muticum)

Garden guide: Things to do this month by …

The Future Of Indigenous Food Sovereignty, Ted Hibbeler, Timothy Thielen, Gabriel Bruguier

University of Nebraska-Lincoln Libraries: Faculty Publications

Executive Summary

This white paper examines the historical, ecological, and systemic challenges facing Indigenous food sovereignty, emphasizing the urgent need to center Indigenous Science—a holistic framework combining empirical observation with cultural wisdom passed down through millennia (Cajete and Williams, 2020). Indigenous Science represents the synthesis of two core components: the scientific, derived from thousands of years of observation and experimentation with the natural world, and the cultural, emerging from Creation stories and traditional practices that establish reciprocal relationships with the natural world (Grey and Patel, 2015).

Drawing on federal policies, Tribal-led initiatives, and academic research, we outline actionable pathways to …

Large Scale Deletion And Rebalancing Within The K1c Kafirin Family In Sorghum, Tyler W. Ferris

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

Sorghum bicolor (L.) Monech (sorghum) is cultivated as food for humans and livestock and is valued for its low input requirements. However, sorghum grain protein is deficient in the essential amino acid lysine and has poor protein digestibility because of the abundance of proline-rich kafirins that constitute >70% of proteins that form low-digestibility protein bodies. To reduce kafirin expression in the endosperm, and elicit wholesale proteome rebalancing to increase non-kafirin proteins, a single-guide RNA (sgRNA) Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR/Cas9) construct was previously used to target members of the highly-repetitive alpha-kafirin family, k1C in RTx430 sorghum. The …

Plant Nutrient Interactions In High-Yielding Soybean Environments, Victoria Inklman

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

Plant nutrient demands and limitations are usually studied individually by nutrient. Here, we investigated how nitrogen (N) limitation in high-yielding soybean environments affects the uptake, removal, and residual of other plant macro- and micronutrients. The objective of this study was to quantify the uptake, removal, and residual levels of soybean macro- and micronutrients under N-limited conditions and to identify nutrient priorities for high-yielding soybean systems. Aboveground plant samples at physiological maturity were collected in 19 high-yielding soybean fields with N limitation across the state of Nebraska. Reference plots with ample N supply were included within each field to compare macro- …

Crop, Soil Nutrient, And Soil Health Responses Within Integrated Crop And Livestock Systems, Alyssa K. Hall

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

We evaluated the influences of grazing livestock on crop production, soil nutrients, and soil health indicators of integrated crop livestock systems using three experiments during a seven-yr. period. Objectives were to (1) determine livestock grazing and cropping system effects on crop yield and soil properties across six yr. in corn-soybean (C-S) and wheat-corn-soybean (W-C-S) systems with and without periodic composted manure application, (2) explore seasonal variation in soil nutrient patterns over two yr., and (3) measure residual responses for corn grain yield plus soil health indicators in yr. seven following a six-yr. study. In experiment 1, neither livestock grazing ( …

How Developers Use Type-System Related Programming Language Features, Samuel W. Flint

School of Computing: Dissertations, Theses, and Student Research

Optional type annotations are a popular feature of programming languages that allow developers to omit explicit type information in code while, in some cases, retaining many of the benefits of static typing, such as in-code documentation, improved detection of type errors, or enforcement of code properties. However, how developers use and understand optional type annotations is not clear. The focus of this dissertation is to understand the use and comprehension of optional type annotations.

Optional type annotations are examined through four lenses: first, by examining the evolution of usage in a statically typed programming language (Kotlin, the default language for …