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The Utah Statesman, November 3, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, November 3, 2016, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Program Proposals

• Creating a Climate Adaptation Science specialization within eleven Master of Science and nine PhD degrees
• Offering a Master of Public Health
• Offering a Bachelor of Science in Nursing
• Changing the name of the PhD in Theory and Practice of Professional Communication to Technical Communication and Rhetoric
• Making changes in the Geography Bachelor of Science program

Semester Course Approval Reviews

Other

• New courses from the Department of Music
• Curriculog updates/suggestions/questions

Animal, Dairy, And Veterinary Sciences Center For Integrated Biosystems | Biological Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

The goal of my research group is to develop and investigate methods and tools to understand and detect diseases. We currently have 3 research thrusts: modeling subretinal tissue, simulating microgravity and radiative effects on skeletal muscle, and separating and identifying bacteria. We use micropatterning and 2D cultures with spider silk to model normal and diseased layers of the subretina. For our muscle research, we are currently using a rotating cell culture system and Cesium disks to replicate the conditions during spaceflight. To identify mycobacterial strands, we are combining dielectrophoresis with Raman spectroscopy for fast and accurate detection. In each of …

Public Views On Renewable Energy In The Rocky Mountain Region Of The United States: Distinct Attitudes, Exposure, And Other Key Predictors Of Wind Energy, Shawn K. Olson-Hazboun, Richard S. Krannich, Peter Robertson

Sociology, Social Work and Anthropology Student Research

Renewable energy is often framed by policymakers and the media as an environmental or ‘green’ issue motivated by global climate change and the need for greenhouse gas reductions. However, some researchers studying social responses to renewables have found that factors other than opinions about climate change may be more influential in determining support for renewables. This study analyzes survey data from a study of five communities in the Rocky Mountain region of the U.S. experiencing wind energy development to examine the relationship between environmental beliefs, climate change opinions, and support for renewable energy. Results show that views on renewable energy …

Does The Presence Of Oil And Gas Infrastructure Potentially Increase Risk Of Harvest In Northern Bobwhite?, Evan P. Tanner, R. Dwayne Elmore, Craig A. Davis, Samuel D. Fuhlendorf, David K. Dahlgren, Eric T. Thacker, Jeremy P. Orange

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Beyond organisms experiencing direct impacts (mortality) from the presence of anthropogenic features, interactive relationships may exacerbate the effects of anthropogenic disturbance within the context of these features. For example, mortality risk may be affected by the road infrastructure associated with energy development by influencing space use of predators including human hunters. To assess these relationships, we conducted research on northern bobwhite Colinus virginianusacross a hunted and non-hunted area of Beaver River Wildlife Management Area, Oklahoma, using radiotelemetry from 2012–2015. We found that bobwhite mortality risk decreased as the distance from primary roads (m) increased across weeks (hazard ratio [HR] …

Grazing Effects On Precipitation-Driven Associations Between Sagebrush And Perennial Grasses, Maike F. Holthuijzen, Kari E. Veblen

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

While many studies have addressed the effect of individual stresses on plant—plant associations, few have addressed the effects of co-occurring stresses. We therefore investigated how associations between Wyoming big sagebrush (Artemisia tridentata ssp. wyomingensis) and 2 native grasses (Poa secunda and Elymus elymoides) responded to different combinations of grazing and moisture stresses in the Great Basin, USA. Positive (i.e., facilitative) interactions between nurse plants and their beneficiaries are predicted to increase with increasing moisture limitation and grazing stress, but these interactions may break down at extreme levels of stress. We hypothesized that (1) competitive interactions and …

“Whatdunit?” Developmental Changes In Children’S Syntactically-Based Sentence Interpretation Abilities And Sensitivity To Word Order, James W. Montgomery, Julia L. Evans, Ronald B. Gillam, Alexander V. Sergeev, Mianisha C. Finney

Special Education and Rehabilitation Counseling Faculty Publications

Aim 1 of this study was to examine the developmental changes in typically developing English-speaking children’s syntactically-based sentence interpretation abilities and sensitivity to word order. Aim 2 was to determine the psychometric standing of the novel sentence interpretation task developed for this study, as we wish to use it later with children with Specific Language Impairment (SLI). Children listened to semantically implausible sentences in which noun animacy and the natural affordance between the nouns were removed, thus controlling for event probability. Using this novel “whatdunit?” agent selection task, 256 children 7-11 years listened to two structures with canonical word order …

Multiplex Social Ecological Network Analysis Reveals How Social Changes Affect Community Robustness More Than Resource Depletion, Jacopo A. Baggio, Shauna B. Burnsilver, Alex Arenas, James S. Magdanz, Gary P. Kofinas, Manlio De Domenico

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Network analysis provides a powerful tool to analyze complex influences of social and ecological structures on community and household dynamics. Most network studies of social–ecological systems use simple, undirected, unweighted networks. We analyze multiplex, directed, and weighted networks of subsistence food flows collected in three small indigenous communities in Arctic Alaska potentially facing substantial economic and ecological changes. Our analysis of plausible future scenarios suggests that changes to social relations and key households have greater effects on community robustness than changes to specific wild food resources.

Psychological Stress Among Risks For Alzheimer's Disease, Maria C. Norton, Elizabeth B. Fauth

All Current Publications

This fact sheet defines stress, stressors and reaction to them, what stress does to our brain and body, and how stress effects can accumulate over time. It also includes tips on reducing the effects of stress on the brain.

The Utah Statesman, October 31, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Nutrition And Dietetic Students' Vitamin And Mineral Knowledge And Concurrent Learning And Retention Strategies, Katie Nicole Brown, Jenna Ellis, Dana Ogan, Heidi Wengreen

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Background: The functions, food sources, deficiency symptoms, and toxicity symptoms are important for dietetic professionals to know and apply to community, food service, and clinical settings. Purpose: To assess nutrition and dietetic students' knowledge of vitamins and minerals and identify students' strategies for learning and retaining vitamin and mineral information. Methodology: Students from three universities in the western United States were invited to participate in cross-sectional study. Participants completed a brief questionnaire that included multiple choice and short answer questions to assess their knowledge of a representative list of 8 vitamins and minerals. The questionnaire also included free-response questions about …

The Utah Statesman, October 27, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Geolocator Tracking Of Great Reed-Warblers (Acrocephalus Arundinaceus) Identifies Key Regions For Migratory Wetland Specialists In The Middle East And Sub-Saharan East Africa, Joshua J. Horns, Evam Buechley, Mark William Chynoweth, Lale Aktay, Emrah Çoban, Mehmet Sli Kırpık, Jordan M. Herman, Yakup Şaşmaz, Çağan H. Şekercioğlu

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Wetland-dependent migratory songbirds represent one of the most vulnerable groups of birds on the planet, with >67% of wetland-obligate species threatened with extinction. One of the major hurdles for conservation efforts is determining the migration routes, stopover sites, and wintering sites of these species. We describe an annual migration cycle revealed by geolocator tracking of Great Reed-Warblers (Acrocephalus arundinaceus) breeding in the Aras River wetlands of eastern Turkey. Because of its relatively large size and breeding ground fidelity, the Great ReedWarbler is an excellent candidate for geolocator studies and can serve as an indicator species for other wetland songbirds, many …

The Utah Statesman, October 20, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

By Means Of Human Selection: The Birth Of Three Parent Babies, Rachel Robinson-Greene

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In the late 1990’s, doctors at the St. Barnabus Institute in New Jersey developed a groundbreaking new technique—they successfully produced a child using the genetic material of three different donor parents. The motivation for the innovation was to help certain at-risk couples have healthy biological children of their own. The procedure, if successful, blocks the spread of disease that is sometimes passed through mitochondrial DNA—a genetic contribution passed to children by their biological mothers. Some women pass on mitochondrial DNA that causes muscular dystrophy or respiratory problems. Leigh Syndrome, a fatal disease, is also passed through mitochondrial DNA.

Volume 70 Issue 1 (Fall/Winter 2016)

Utah Science

2: What's on Your Plate?

When studying cancer in mice, USU researchers are starting with a “Western diet” and finding more connections between diet and health… good and bad.

5: Uncommon Hamsters Helping Fight Common Viruses

New genetically modified hamsters play an important role in studying human diseases caused by adenovirus, and may also be valuable in studies of Ebola, dengue and hanta viruses.

8: Science vs. Viruses

When viruses cause enough damage to make the news, it’s rarely “news” to scientists at the Institute for Antiviral Research. Learning how viruses work, and testing drugs to stop them, is what …

Better Late Than Never: Effective Air-Borne Hearing Of Toads Delayed By Late Maturation Of The Tympanic Middle Ear Structures, Molly C. Womack, Jakob Christensen-Dalsgaard, Kim L. Hoke

Biology Faculty Publications

Most vertebrates have evolved a tympanic middle ear that enables effective hearing of airborne sound on land. Although inner ears develop during the tadpole stages of toads, tympanic middle ear structures are not complete until months after metamorphosis, potentially limiting the sensitivity of post-metamorphic juveniles to sounds in their environment. We tested the hearing of five species of toads to determine how delayed ear development impairs airborne auditory sensitivity. We performed auditory brainstem recordings to test the hearing of the toads and used micro-computed tomography and histology to relate the development of ear structures to hearing ability. We found a …

Calf And Yearling Prices In California And The Western United States, Tina Saitone, Larry C. Forero, Glenn A. Nader, Leslie A. Forero

Wildland Resources Student Research

This paper investigates spatial, quality and temporal factors impacting the pricing of calves and yearlings in the western United States using data from a satellite video auction and a hedonic regression framework. Results suggest that spatial price discounts received by western ranchers closely match reported shipping costs and, thus, are consistent with free-on-board pricing and competitive procurement. This study also identifies the presence of temporal price premiums, on average, for seller-offered forward contracts at video auctions. With respect to quality attributes, this study provides estimates of the marginal value associated with various quality attributes and management practices, including vaccination protocols, …

A Lota Lota Consumption: Trophic Dynamics Of Non-Native Burbot In A Valuable Sport Fishery, Stephen L. Klobucar, W. Carl Saunders, Phaedra Budy

Watershed Sciences Student Research

Unintentional and illegal introductions of species disrupt food webs and threaten the success of managed sport fisheries. Although many populations of Burbot Lota lota are declining in the species’ native range, a nonnative population recently expanded into Flaming Gorge Reservoir (FGR), Wyoming–Utah, and threatens to disrupt predator–prey interactions within this popular sport fishery. To determine potential impacts on sport fishes, especially trophy Lake Trout Salvelinus namaycush, we assessed the relative abundance of Burbot and quantified the potential trophic or food web impacts of this population by using diet, stable isotope, and bioenergetic analyses. We did not detect a significant …

Cognitive Functioning Of Akwesasne Mohawk Adolescents Exposed To Pcbs, Joan Newman 4425055, Mia Gallo, Akwesasne Task Force On The Environment, Lawrence M. Schell

Journal of Indigenous Research

This study was carried out in partnership with Akwesasne Mohawks whose environment has been polluted with PCBs from industrial effluent. Using three cognitive tests (Woodcock Johnson Revised, Test of Memory and Learning, and Ravens Progressive Matrices), we investigated the cognitive functioning of 269 adolescents and related their scores to PCBs in their blood. Although the group of adolescents performed as the standardization sample of other adolescents of the same age in North America, we found that scores on three of their subtests (all involving memory) were negatively related to PCB body burden. There was an especially robust association of PCBs …

Revised Scec Final Report On The New East Shoreline Strand Of The San Andreas Fault, Susanne U. Jänecke, Daniel K. Markowski

Geosciences Faculty Publications

This report consists of three parts: Original proposal (2011), provisional report (Janecke, 2013), and a final summary in the form of the MS thesis of Daniel Markowski (2016). The abstract herein is the abstract of Janecke's provisional report except that I updated the name of the fault to East Shoreline strand of the SAF. A different "Shoreline fault" is already in the Quaternary fault and fold database. See Markowski (2016) and Janecke et al. 2016 for additional updates.

Summary:

In 2013 Janecke submitted a provisional report to SCEC about our research along the newly identified East Shoreline strand of …

Identification Of Snps Located On Bta 6 And Bta 20 Significantly Associated With Bovine Respiratory Disease In Crossbred Cattle, S. L. Miller, S. Mizell, R. Walker, T. Page, Matthew D. Garcia

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The objective of the present study was to evaluate single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) located in two quantitative trait locus (QTL) regions (BTA 6 and BTA 20) that are associated with bovine respiratory disease (BRD). A population of 323 crossbred steers sired by five purebred sire breeds during 2010-2013 (Angus, Braford, Braunvieh, Charolais, and Simmental) were evaluated for BRD susceptibility during the finishing process at a commercial feedlot. A total of 21 animals representing all sire breeds were affected with BRD at some time during the finishing process over the 4-year period. Although multiple sire breeds were evaluated in the present …

The Utah Statesman, October 3, 2016, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Faculty Senate Agenda, October 3, 2016, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• EPC Items –September 2016
• Honors Program
• Libraries Advisory Council
• Parking Committee
• Student Code of Conduct

Liberalis, Fall 2016, Utah State University

Liberalis

Freedom to Think, Discover, and Create. The alumni magazine for the College of Humanities and Social Sciences at Utah State University.

Forecasting Climate Change Impacts On Plant Populations Over Large Spatial Extents, Andrew T. Tredennick, Melvin Hooten, Cameron L. Aldridge, Collin G. Homer, Andrew R. Kleinhesselink, Peter B. Adler

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Plant population models are powerful tools for predicting climate change impacts in one location, but are difficult to apply at landscape scales. We overcome this limitation by taking advantage of two recent advances: remotely sensed, species-specific estimates of plant cover and statistical models developed for spatiotemporal dynamics of animal populations. Using computationally efficient model reparameterizations, we fit a spatiotemporal population model to a 28-year time series of sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) percent cover over a 2.5 × 5 km landscape in southwestern Wyoming while formally accounting for spatial autocorrelation. We include interannual variation in precipitation and temperature as covariates in the …

Appropriating Quantified Self Technologies To Support Elementary Statistical Teaching And Learning, Victor R. Lee, Joel R. Drake, Jeffrey L. Thayne

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

Wearable activity tracking devices associated with the Quantified Self movement have potential benefit for educational settings because they produce authentic and granular data about activities and experiences already familiar to youth. This article explores how that potential could be realized through explicit acknowledgment of and response to tacit design assumptions about how such technologies will be used in practice and strategic design for use in a classroom. We argue that particular practical adaptations that we have identified serve to ensure that the classroom and educational use cases are appropriately considered. As an example of how those adaptations are realized in …

Comparison Of Three Traps Used For Pocket Gopher Management (Thomomys Bottae) In Alfalfa Fields, S. Nicole Frey, Mark Nelson

All Current Publications

This fact sheet is a report of a study that compared three traps used for pocket gopher management to determine which trap may be the most effective at capturing valley pocket gophers and was the most time efficient.

Cottontails And Jackrabbits, S. Nicole Frey

All Current Publications

This fact sheet explains the difference between rabbits and hares and describes their conflicts with humans, methods to prevent damage including excluding, repelling, or removing, and population control. It also describes Tularemia, a disease caused by infection of a bacteria Franisella tularenis.

Equine Piroplasmosis, Karl Hoopes, Barry Pittman

All Current Publications

This fact sheet describes equine Piropasmosis, a tick-borne disease that can affect horses, how it is transmitted, how it is diagnosed, prevention, and treatment.