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Modeling Temperature And Moisture Dependent Emissions Of Carbon Dioxide And Methane From Drying Dairy Cow Manure, Enzhu Hu, Pakorn Sutitarnnontr, Markus Tuller, Scott B. Jones

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Greenhouse gas emissions due to biological degradation processes of animal wastes are significant sources of air pollution from agricultural areas. The major environmental controls on these microbe-induced gas fluxes are temperature and moisture content. The objective of this study was to model the effects of temperature and moisture content on emissions of CO₂ and CH₄ during the ambient drying process of dairy manure under controlled conditions. Gas emissions were continuously recorded over 15 d with paired fully automated closed dynamic chambers coupled with a Fourier Transformed Infrared gas analyzer. Water content and temperature were measured and monitored with …

Impulsive Choice And Pre-Exposure To Delays: Iv. Effects Of Delay- And Immediacy-Exposure Training Relative To Maturational Changes In Impulsivity, C. Renee Renda, Jillian M. Rung, Jay E. Hinnenkamp, Stephanie N. Lenzini, Gregory J. Madden

Psychology Faculty Publications

Impulsive choice describes preference for smaller, sooner rewards over larger, later rewards. Excessive delay discounting (i.e., rapid devaluation of delayed rewards) underlies some impulsive choices, and is observed in many maladaptive behaviors (e.g., substance abuse, gambling). Interventions designed to reduce delay discounting may provide therapeutic gains. One such intervention provides rats with extended training with delayed reinforcers. When compared to a group given extended training with immediate reinforcers, delay-exposed rats make significantly fewer impulsive choices. To what extent is this difference due to delay-exposure training shifting preference toward self-control or immediacy-exposure training (the putative control group) shifting preference toward impulsivity? …

Spatial Processes Decouple Management From Objectives In A Heterogeneous Landscape: Predator Control As A Case Study, Peter J. Mahoney, Julie K. Young, Kent R. Hersey, Randy T. Larsen, Brock R. Mcmillan, David C. Stoner

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Predator control is often implemented with the intent of disrupting top‐down regulation in sensitive prey populations. However, ambiguity surrounding the efficacy of predator management, as well as the strength of top‐down effects of predators in general, is often exacerbated by the spatially implicit analytical approaches used in assessing data with explicit spatial structure. Here, we highlight the importance of considering spatial context in the case of a predator control study in south‐central Utah. We assessed the spatial match between aerial removal risk in coyotes (Canis latrans) and mule deer (Odocoileus hemionus) resource selection during parturition using …

From Outside To Online: Unanticipated Directions For Utah Master Naturalist, Mark Larese-Casanova, Jennifer Perkins

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

Utah Master Naturalist is an award-winning Utah State University Extension program that promotes stewardship of Utah’s natural world through place-based, experiential field courses across the state. Although successful in eliciting positive short- and long-term impacts, Utah Master Naturalist’s traditional five-day field courses were unavailable to many students and instructors due to constraints of time and location. This case study examines Utah Master Naturalist’s first hybrid course, Desert Explorations, and describes the positive results from our pilot study, how a hybrid course solves availability issues, and how field-based learning theories can be adapted to online education through careful design.

Full Issue: Journal On Empowering Teaching Excellence, Volume 2, Issue 1

Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence

The full Spring 2018 issue (Volume 2, Issue 1) of the Journal on Empowering Teaching Excellence.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, April 16, 2018, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Academic Freedom and Tenure (AFT) Annual Report
• Committee on Committees (CoC) Annual Report
• Calendar Committee Annual Report
• Koch Task Force Update
• Code Change
• Election of Faculty Senate President-Elect

Use Of Unpalatable Forages By Ruminants: The Influence Of Experience With The Biophysical And Social Environment, Roberto A. Distel, Juan J. Villalba

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Unpalatable forage resources (low nutrient density, potentially toxic metabolites) are widespread and represent a challenge for ruminant nutrition, health, and welfare. Our objective was to synthesize the role of biophysical and social experience on the use of unpalatable forages by ruminants, and highlight derived behavioural solutions for the well-being of soils, plants, and animals. Environmental experiences early in life modulate gene expression and promote learning, which alters morpho-physiological and psychological mechanisms that modify behavioural responses and change food and habitat selection. In this process, ruminants can become better adapted to the habitat where they are reared. Moreover, experiential learning provides …

Numerical Approach To The Dynamics Of Killer Whale Predation On Steller Sea Lions, Brett Mortenson, David Maughan, Em Black

Student Research Symposium

Stellar sea lion populations around the Aleutian islands and southeast Alaska has been in decline over the past 50 years, yet it is unkown what factors may affect this decline. Past research has created simulations to model the ecosystem around these regions that contains an exhaustive list of inhabiting animals. We approach this problem by analyzing the interaction between transient killer whales and stellar sea lions, creating a dynamical system that can be solved analytically. Our results show that transient killer whales have a large effect on sea lion population, and the persistence of transient killer whale populations will lead …

Sterility And C2c12 Cell Growth Potential Of Polycarbonate, Eryn Hanson, Morgan Bishop, Tessa Burrows

Student Research Symposium

The current data collection method of cell growth and death in a simulated space environment using a rotary cell culture system involves the use of disposable polystyrene. Polystyrene generates large amounts of waste and is limited by the sizes determined by manufacturers. A novel rotary cell culture system at USU required a material that could be custom machined for the purposes of the simulation. Polycarbonate is a durable material that is capable of being shaped, but little is known of its biocompatibility. The sterilization treatments of dry heat, autoclaving, ethanol, and UV radiation were used and compared to unsterilized polycarbonate …

Advanced Mathematical Approaches For Modeling Animal Movement Through Landscapes, Molly Robinson

Student Research Symposium

An important component of population ecology is understanding the impact on animal movement. Modeling animal movement helps us understand how this impact manifests itself in animal behavior and habitat selection as well as human impact on wildlife. Correlated movement and heterogeneous landscapes add complexity to these models and are often neglected. How do landscape features condition population movement and habitat choice? I answer this question by showing that motility does play a significant role in population dynamics. The ecological telegrapher's equation (ETE) incorporates both variable landscape and correlated movement. The solution to the ETE predicts the PDF of future locations. …

Stereotypical Association, Sara Gwynn

Student Research Symposium

The purpose of this study was to understand the possible reasons for the association of a certain stereotype towards an image. This was done by conducting an experiment involving multiple participants and having these individuals take a total of five surveys. By collecting fifty images that fell under the categories of race, religion, relationships, gender, and symbols - one hundred and three questions were asked to the seventy participants, all with differing ages and gender. An analysis for each question was then conducted to understand why the most chosen image was associated with the corresponding question. In conclusion, there was …

Using Raav-Timp3 Vector For The Improvement Of Osteoarthritis In An Ovine Model, Crystal Collier

Student Research Symposium

Osteoarthritis is the most common joint disorder in the United States. It becomes most prevalent in adults reaching 60+ years of age and causes discomfort, decreased mobility and in some cases even excruciating pain. A large animal model for osteoarthritis is necessary for furthering the research and solution potential for this ubiquitous disease. Using an ovine model proves an effective technique in characterizing joint issues and with a demonstrated method of inducing the osteoarthritis over a period of months, not years, we can make hefty strides in furthering understanding of the disease. Our method involves two groups of surgically altered, …

Design Features And Their Affordances In Grade 4 Digital Math Games, Allison Roxburgh

Student Research Symposium

This presentation reports on the interaction forty-four children (Grades 2-3) had with three digital math games during clinical interviews. Children completed a pretest, interacted with three digital math games, answered questions about their interactions, and completed a posttest. During the interviews, researchers captured two video perspectives of the interactions students had with the digital math applications. A mixed-methods approach was used to analyze the pretest and posttest data to examine how design features within each math application afforded learning. The results showed that children were aware of design features, either helping or hindering, at various levels, and children who were …

Age-Related Loss Of Early Grasp Affordance When Viewing A Safety Handle, Doug Mcdannald

Student Research Symposium

Age-related loss of early grasp affordance when viewing a safety handle Author: D.W. McDannald1, , M. Mansour2, G. Rydalch3, D.A.E. Bolton1 Mere observation of objects in our surroundings can potentiate movement, a fact reflected by visually-primed activation of motor cortical networks. This mechanism holds potential value for reactive balance control where recovery actions of the arms or legs must be targeted to a new support base to avoid a fall. The present study was conducted to test if there was a difference in activation of motor cortical networks when viewing a wall-mounted safety handle in older adults versus young adults. …

Modeling The Emergence Of Epistatic Gene Combinations As A Phenotypic Function Of Evolution, Wyatt Brannon

Student Research Symposium

Empirical evidence has demonstrated that individual features of an organism, such as a dog’s hair color, are often the expression of a set of interdependent genes rather than that of a single gene. When outward features, or phenotypes, are predicated on a set of interdependent genes, the genes are said to be epistatic. This project uses a software model to simulate the emergence of epistasis within a simple haploid species. Correspondent to the utility of an individual’s phenotypic expression, each organism possesses a calculated fitness value based upon its genetic composition. As high fitness individuals tend to have a longer …

Why Bad Things Happen To Good People: A Medieval, Icelandic Perspective, Andraea Jones

Student Research Symposium

This presentation examines two Icelandic Sagas, "Thidrandi Whom the Goddesses Slew" and "Hen-Thorir", for possible answers to the question, "why do bad things happen to good people?" It also explores how the perspectives of Medieval Icelanders, on this topic, are still relevant today. Dr. Cooper-Rompato (English Department) would like to recommend this paper as part of a panel on medieval literature.

Reinventing The Prison Yard: Creating Healthier Prisons Through Landscape Architecture And Sociology, Jonathan Young

Student Research Symposium

Many Americans have seen pictures of so-called ‘luxury’ prisons in places like Norway and Finland, and for those who have grown up knowing the harsh American prison system, the Scandinavian prisons seem to be almost rewarding criminals. However, in some areas in the United States rehabilitative prison systems are gaining popularity over a purely incapacitative system, and American researchers have turned to the Scandinavian experiments with increased interest to see what we can learn and apply from them. While this has led to interesting research in sociological, criminological, and even architectural fields, the role of landscape architecture in prisons has …

Veterinarian Clinics + Interior Design, Shantae Broadbent

Student Research Symposium

A veterinarian clinic is a space for not only humans, but animals. With that in mind, the design needed to accommodate the vet clinic employees, the animals and their owners. To make sure that all accommodations were met, I conducted an interview with a Veterinarian Technician from Bridgerland Animal Hospital. I asked what facilities they had, what they used daily and what they didn’t have that they could benefit from. I asked how many animals they saw daily and what type of animals were, and lastly, I asked what was working and wasn’t with the current layout of their clinic. …

Historia Naturae, Maxime Peregrinae, Emerson Fisher, Stokton Evensen, Tanner Austin, Alexia Slade, Jake Hall

Student Research Symposium

We will be presenting our poster on Historia Natvrae, Maxime Peregrinae (Natural History of the Americas) by Juan Eusebio Nieremberg. Nieremberg, a Spanish Jesuit, wrote the book in 1635. Our focus for this research assignment will be to determine the accuracy and validity of Nieremberg’s claims. Nieremberg traveled to the Americas and recorded first-hand accounts of native plants and animals, but several creatures in his novel were created out of superstition. This historical treatise systematically categorizes the plants and animals of North and South America, studying Mexico in particular. It depicts numerous native plants and describes their medicinal properties, some …

Percussive Behavior In The Southern Resident Killer Whale (Orcinus Orca) Population At Lime Kiln Point State Park, Rylee Jensen

Student Research Symposium

The endangered Southern Resident killer whale (Orcinus orca) is an iconic species in the Pacific Northwest, particularly around the San Juan Islands of Washington state. The population is made up of three pods (J, K, and L) and each individual is given an alpha-numeric identification to designate them to their birth pod and rank (i.e. L87). Although this population has been intensely studied for over 40 years, there is no definitive answer biologists can give as to why killer whales perform above-surface, “percussive” behaviors such as breaching, cartwheeling, pec slapping, and tail lobbing. This study evaluates preferences for these behaviors …

Effect Of Tannins On Nitrogen Cycling In Pasture Soils, Kathryn Slebodnik

Student Research Symposium

Grass-fed beef production has gained recent popularity with consumers who are concerned with the environmental impact of beef production and animal welfare. However, feedlot-finished beef has been shown to have lower rates of greenhouse gas emissions than pasture-finished beef. Using tannin-containing legume forages may help to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and improve nitrogen retention in grazed pasture systems. This research aims to understand how tannin-containing forages influence nitrogen mineralization and denitrification processes in the soil, as well as use greenhouse gas modeling software to compare potential emissions from several pasture-finished beef production systems in the intermountain west.

Economically Preserving Mammalian Cell Cultures At The Institute For Antiviral Research, Brennan Mcewan

Student Research Symposium

My project compares several different methods of freezing human cell lines for storage to see which method best preserves the cells. Cell storage is an important but often overlooked part of any lab that does in vitro testing. Freezing cells allows cell lines to be used long after they are harvested, and allows laboratories to use cells at much lower passage numbers than if they had been continuously grown since harvest. It is important to store the cells properly because poor storage methods can seriously harm or kill valuable cell lines. To test different cell freezing strategies, I will harvest …

Improving Air Quality Through Dietary Protein Management In Cattle, Ashley Houston

Student Research Symposium

Particulate matter pollution has become a subject of great concern across the globe. Emissions data has revealed that the agricultural sector is making large contributions to particulate matter through ammonia emissions. Beef and dairy cattle are responsible for producing nearly 50% of annual ammonia emissions in the United States. These animals are often fed amounts of dietary protein that exceed recommendations, resulting in increased excretion of urea and ammonia. These compounds combine with Nitrogen Oxides in the atmosphere to form PM2.5: particulate matter measuring less than 2.5 microns in diameter. Research has shown that through proper dietary management of protein, …

Fish Assemblages Around Patch Reefs At Heron Lagoon, Australia: Who Drives The Algae Halo Patterns?, Audree Van Valkenburg

Student Research Symposium

Predator presence on reefs indirectly affects fishes foraging behavior. Satellite imagery has revealed “halo” patterns in vegetation growth around patch reefs in Heron Island, Australia. It is hypothesized that these patterns in vegetation are caused by predator-mediate effects on fish foraging behavior. A previous study at Heron Island and Panganng Island, Indonesia have indicated that shark presence drives these algae patterns. In my study, I investigated the major fish species responsible for creating the halo patterns in Heron Island lagoon. At three separate sites, I set three cameras at 10-meter increments from the patch reef to observe fish behavior at …

Mechanisms Of Abnormal Angiogenesis In Retinal Disease, Farhad Farjood

Student Research Symposium

Abnormal angiogenesis is often the final step towards loss of vision in many retinal diseases, including exudative age-related macular degeneration. While many risk factors have been found to be linked to elevated levels of angiogenic proteins in the eye, the exact mechanisms leading to abnormal angiogenesis remain unclear. Loss of cell-cell contact and mechanical stress are two understudied phenomena that are often associated with retinal degeneration. The hypothesis of this work is that mechanical stress and loss of cell-cell contact can promote initiation and/or progression of aberrant angiogenesis in the retina by inducing the expression of angiogenic proteins. To test …

Garcilasso De La Vega’S Defense And Criticism Of His Inca Heritage And Culture To The Spanish, Jennifer Morales, Natalie Phippen, Ian Kittleson, Michael Kay

Student Research Symposium

The author of our book was the son of a Spanish conquistador and an Incan woman of royal heritage. He was educated in Western thought from his childhood, but lived in Peru until he became an adult. There he decided to offer an account of Incan heritage and the Spanish conquest, based on historical records, personal experience, and stories he learned from his family. His heritage and sources allowed him to straddle both the Western Catholic world and the vanishing Incan tradition. In his book, his accounts of Incan culture and traditions are colored by both a Catholic mpresentation view …

Undergraduates And Woodpeckers, Taryn Rodman

Student Research Symposium

Woodpeckers serve a vital role as a keystone species in their respective biome by excavating nesting cavities that are used by numerous forest birds and animals. These secondary cavity nesters rely heavily on the success of primary cavity nesters in order to ensure their own reproductive success. Unfortunately, numerous woodpeckers, such as the Black-backed (Picoides arcticus) and White-headed Woodpeckers (Picoides albolarvatus), have seen a large decline in numbers and are now considered a threatened species. Inability for these woodpeckers to reproduce creates a top-down trophic cascade in their biome. In an effort to better understand how nesting success is impacted …

Mitochondrial-Targeted Co-Releasing Molecule, Tatiana Soboleva

Student Research Symposium

Carbon monoxide is an endogenously produced signalling molecule that is known to exert cytoprotective and homeostatic regulatory functions. Due to its high affinity for heme proteins, one of the recognized targets for CO are mitochondria and their electron transport chain. To date, there are four reported CORMs (CORM-2, CORM-3, CORM-A1, and CORM-401) that have been used as CO donors in mitochondrial studies. However, the differences with respect to their cell penetration, localization and solution-driven CO release chemistry could make the comparison of mitochondrial response data for these systems challenging. To investigate the impact of mitochondrial-specific CO delivery, we have designed …

Cyclical Parthenogenesis In Crustaceans, Marianne Maughan

Student Research Symposium

Apomixis is the replacement of sexual reproduction with asexual reproduction in plants. Some scientists hypothesize that apomixis is caused by genetics that evolved after sexual reproduction and apomixis mutated from sexual reproduction. However, we hypothesize that sexual reproduction and apomixis evolved simultaneously during eukaryogenesis, the evolution of eukaryotic life. We think that most organisms retain the capacity for apomixis and sexual reproduction in their genome. Many taxa, including plants and crustaceans, should have a single genome able to express both sexual and asexual reproduction as long as the correct metabolic signaling is provided to the germline cells. In Professor John …

High Tunnel Production Of Annual Cut Flowers, Maegen Lewis

Student Research Symposium

Small farms are using high tunnels to expand their production season for high value crops such as fruits and vegetables. Cut flowers are one potential high value crop that hasn’t been fully explored for Utah, partly due to a lack of region-specific information. My research objective is to develop appropriate management strategies for two representative annual cut flower crops (snapdragon and sweet pea). Replicated plots of ‘Rocket’ snapdragon, and the sweet pea cultivars ‘Mammoth’, ‘Elegance’, ‘Royal’, and ‘Spencer’ were planted in high tunnels in early April-May, and in field plantings later in May. Stems were harvested 3 days per week …