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The Utah Statesman, September 28, 2015, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Narrating Jane: Telling The Story Of An Early African American Mormon Woman, Quincy D. Newell

Arrington Annual Lecture

Jane Elizabeth Manning James was among the early African American converts to Mormonism. After joining the church in the early 1840s, James remained a faithful member until her death in Salt Lake City in 1908. Although she was well-known among church members during her lifetime, James was largely forgotten after her death. However, beginning in about 2000, there was a significant up-tick in non-academic LDS discourse about James. Dr. Newell will analyze this recent talk about Jane, showing that she has become a way for Latter-day Saints to talk about both gender and race in ways that create a usable …

The Utah Statesman, September 24, 2015, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

The Utah Statesman, September 14, 2015, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Controlling Episodic Air Pollution With A Seasonal Gas Tax: The Case Of Cache Valley, Utah, Leo A. Moscardini, Arthur J. Caplan

Applied Economics Faculty Publications

Using daily data spanning 10 years, we establish a statistical relationship between episodic particulate-matter (PM_2.5) concentrations and vehicle trips in Cache Valley, Utah, and estimate an average gas-price elasticity for the region. We also estimate the benefits and costs associated with a seasonal gas tax set to reduce vehicle trips during the winter-inversion season and thereby lower health costs through concomitant decreases in the PM_2.5 concentrations. We find a strong positive relationship between vehicle trips reduced and associated reductions in PM_2.5 concentrations. Further, we estimate a mean gas price elasticity of approximately –0.3 in what we …

Educational Policies Committee Agenda, September 3, 2015, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Educational Policies Committee Minutes, September 3, 2015, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports
• Curriculum Subcommittee
• Course Approvals
• Program Proposals
• Academic Standards Subcommittee
• General Education Subcommittee

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes, September 3, 2015, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

Introduction of Committee Members

Charge and Responsibilities of Committee

Approval of 2 April 2015 Minutes

Semester Course Approval Reviews

Program Proposals

• Creating an Associate of Science Degree Program in Agricultural Science
• Discontinuing the Food Technology Management Emphasis
• Discontinuing the Early Childhood Development Associate of Arts Degree at USU Eastern
• Offering a Minor in Behavioral Health

Other

• Utilizing Curriculog and Box

Women's Wartime Life Writing In Early Twentieth-Century China, Li Guo

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

In her article "Women's Wartime Life Writing in Early Twentieth-Century China" Li Guo discusses military diaries, prison memoirs, and autobiographical reportages. These documents offer rich insights into the political endeavors and military mobility of women. Guo analyzes Bingying Xie's 1928 war diary about the Chinese nationalists' northern expedition, Langi Hu's 1937 book about anti-Japanese activism, and Lang Bai's 1939 reportage about the Sino-Japanese War and argues that these texts allow women to reconfigure the discourse of nation through experimental life writing in order to develop the genre with tales of valor, hope, struggle, and heroism. Guo argues that contrary to …

Unusual Behavior In Parental Care By A House Wren (Troglodytes Aedon): Post Fledging Use Of An Old Nest During Cold Nights, Micah N. Scholer

Articles

I report on the unusual behavior of an adult House Wren (Troglodytes aedon) leading recently fledged young back to the nest for two consecutive nights. The ambient temperature reached below 0°C during both nights. Despite disadvantages associated with remaining in the nest, this observation suggests that adult birds may assess trade-offs between perceived risks versus the benefits of engaging in other activities, in this case roosting communally for thermoregulation.

What Does A Sage-Grouse Eat?, David K. Dahlgren, Eric T. Thacker, Terry A. Messmer

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Greater sage-grouse (Centrocercus urophasianus; sage-grouse), as their name implies, depend on sagebrush (Artemisia spp.) for their survival. In fact, during the winter sage-grouse survive by only eating sagebrush.

Burrowing Owls, Pulex Irritans And Plague, James R. Belthoff, Scott A. Bernhardt, Christopher Ball, Michael Gregg, David H. Johnson, Rachel Ketterling, Emily Price, Juliette K. Tinker

Biology Faculty Publications

Western burrowing owls (Athene cunicularia hypugaea) are small, ground-dwelling owls ofwestern North America that frequent prairie dog (Cynomys spp.) towns and other grasslands.As they rely on rodent prey and occupy burrows once or concurrently inhabited by fossorialmammals, the owls often harbor fleas. We examined the potential role of fleas found onburrowing owls in plague dynamics by evaluating prevalence of Yersinia pestis in fleas and inowl blood. During 2012-2013 fleas and blood were collected from burrowing owls in portionsof five states with endemic plague: Idaho, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, and South Dakota.Fleas were enumerated, taxonomically identified, pooled by nest and assayed for …

Methods And Costs For Pond-Catchment Rehabilitation On The Borana Plateau, D. Layne Coppock, Brien E. Norton, Demisachew Tadele, Dereje Teshome, Bedasa Eba, Jaldesa Doyo, Seyoum Tezera

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Borana Plateau is an important rangeland for Ethiopia. One key limitation for people and livestock is lack of drinking water. Hundreds of ponds are important water sources for most of the year. Pond catchments are poorly managed because livestock access is uncontrolled. Catchments are stripped bare of vegetation due to trampling and heavy grazing, and unprotected soil is prone to erosion. When the rains come the ponds quickly fill with sediment. Sedimentation reduces pond holding capacity and much labor is required to clean them out. As part of a pilot research project we rehabilitated four ponds and their immediate …

Targeted Informal Education Promotes Improved Well-Being, Innovation, And Climate-Change Adaptation Among Residents In Bajura District, Nepal, D. Layne Coppock, Nirmala Pandey, Sanoj Tulachan, Divakar Duwal, Maghana Dhungana, Bishnu Prasad Dulal, Dale Davis

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

Western Nepal is a remote region home to a wide variety of traditional small farm and livestock production systems. Communities here lack direct access to a suitable road infrastructure and thus are isolated from the modern world. Farm families are often poverty stricken. Western Nepal is also enduring significant climate change, resulting in warmer and drier conditions that negatively affect crop and livestock productivity. Here we report findings from a novel, quasi-experimental approach where the residents of two communities were provided with an intervention package and their perceptions of change over a 16-month period were contrasted with those from residents …

Livestock Grazing On The Grand Staircase Escalante National Monument: The Historical And Cultural Importance To The Region, Kevin Heaton, Gil Miller

All Current Publications

The results of a survey of GSENM permit holders document that livestock grazing has influenced the history and culture of Kane and Garfield Counties of Utah, and any reduction or elimination of grazing would directly affect the history and culture of the GSENM region.

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda, August 31, 2015, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• FSEC Role in Faculty Communication
• Overview of Faculty Senate Webpage
• Graduate Council and Research Council Report
• Code Change Deferred 407.6.4(1) Reasons for Non-renewal
• Code Change 406 Dealing with urgent financial issues
• Brown Bag Lunches with the President?
• Proposal to change code to include state to federal collaborators 401.4.2.4
• Potential Issues for Faculty Senate Action

The Moon & Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (Merbe), Grant Matthews

The Characterization and Radiometric Calibration for Remote Sensing Annual Meeting (CALCON)

Recent work has reported that calibration quality of existing space-based Earth Radiation Budget (ERB) measurements is insufficient to detect important model predicted cloud climate forcing trends in the near future, given the low estimated sizes of the signals of interest. Additional statistical results from the same studies show that no mission, even those using improved concepts currently in development, will provide the data accuracy required to detect such predicted but uncertain climate signals for at least twenty years. Hence a new project called the Moon and Earth Radiation Budget Experiment (MERBE) is underway. Primary to MERBE, multiple orbiting ERB devices …

Initial Results Of The First Nsf-Funded Research Experience For Undergraduates On Small Satellite Software, Jeremy Straub, Ronald Marsh, David Whalen

Small Satellite Conference

This paper presents preliminary results from the first year of the first National Science Foundation (NSF) funded research experience for undergraduates (REU) with a focus on small satellite software. It begins with a discussion of prior work on the development of an open-hardware, open-source software CubeSat, the OpenOrbiter project and the Open Prototype for Educational NanoSats design, and how this served as foundational work for the REU. A brief discussion of the evaluation techniques used in this program is presented as are the results (which serve as a point of reference for which to compare those from the REU). Next, …

Large Wildlife Removal Drives Immune Defence Increases In Rodents, Hillary S. Young, Rodolfo Dirzo, Kristofer M. Helgen, Douglas J. Mccauley, Charles L. Nunn, Paul Snyder, Kari E. Veblen, Serena Zhao, Vanessa O. Ezenwa

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

1. Anthropogenic disturbances involving land use change, climate disruption, pollution and invasive species have been shown to impact immune function of wild animals. These immune changes have direct impacts on the fitness of impacted animals and, also, potentially indirect effects on other species and on ecological processes, notably involving the spread of infectious disease. Here, we investigate whether the selective loss of large wildlife can also drive changes in immune function of other consumer species.
2. Using a long-standing large-scale exclosure experiment in East Africa, we investigated the effects of selective removal of large wildlife on multiple measures of immune function in …

Characterizing Demographicparameters Across Environmental Gradients: A Case Study With Ontario Moose, Garrett M. Street, Tal Avgar, Arthur R. Rodgers, John M. Fryxell

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Population-level demographic characteristics as estimated by standard logistic growth models (i.e., carrying capacity and intrinsic growth rate) should vary with changes in habitat quality and availability of resources. However, few published studies have tested this hypothesis by comparing population growth rates across broad bioclimatic gradients, and fewer still the carrying capacities of those populations. We used time series data on moose (Alces alces) population densities based on aerial census and hunter harvest data for 34 management units across Ontario to estimate local carrying capacities and intrinsic growth rates. These population parameters were then regressed against associated habitat covariates for each …

Creativity: The Critical Element For Mission Success, Luca Maresi, Alessandro Zuccaro Marchi

Small Satellite Conference

Can creativity be the critical element for the success of a Space Mission? Problem solving methodologies, as brainstorming, are familiar for finding solutions to technical problems. The analytical skills to solve problems and the creativity required to invent new products may appear similar, but they are profoundly different. Creativity requires a different mindset than problem solving. In sectors where the engineering process depends on creative thinkers new ways of technology development need to be defined. The objective of the mission Rosetta to land on a comet is well defined. For most of cubesat missions, the problem is posed the other …

Globalstar Communication Link For Cubesats, Jeff Dailey, Hank D. Voss, Art White, Stefan Brandle

Small Satellite Conference

No abstract provided.

General Catalog 2015-2016, Utah State University

University Catalogs

This catalog contains information on the Academic Departments and Programs as well as Course Descriptions for the above school year at Utah State University. To avoid large file downloads, the Academic Departments and Programs information is located in this file. The Course Description information is located in the secondary file.

Participant Perceptions Of Range Rider Programs Used To Mitigate Wolf-Livestock Conflicts In The Western United States, Molly Parks

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Range Rider Programs (RRPs) are one example of a proactive non-lethal tool that has been implemented in western United States to mitigate gray wolf (Canis lupus) and livestock conflicts. Because RRPs are an emerging non-lethal tool that little is known about, I selected a qualitative research approach to examine participant perceptions to further contemporary understanding of how these efforts are implemented and potential benefits. I surveyed 51 participants from 17 Range Rider Programs (RRPs) in Montana, Washington, and Oregon to determine participant perceptions regarding effectiveness of RRPs as a non-lethal approach to mitigate wolf-conflicts.

I developed a RRPs typology based …

How Do Choice Of Major And Industrial Structure Influence College Graduates' Unemployment Rate In China, Xiuwen Shi

All Graduate Plan B and other Reports, Spring 1920 to Spring 2023

Recently, the higher education market is developing very fast, and China’s universities and colleges are increasing their enrollment. More and more college graduates with higher education backgrounds enter the labor market and the college graduates have to face higher unemployment pressure when they find jobs. For the college graduates’ unemployment problem, many literatures and research are focusing on over-enrollment problem, the influence of the major differences, and the influence of the industrial structure development.

This thesis examines the consequence of the over-enrollment problem with a group of data set and linear regressive analysis model. The finding indicates that there is …

Examining The Association Between Children's Fruit And Vegetable Intake At And Away From School, Velarie Yaa Ankrah Ansu

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Several school-based interventions aimed at increasing fruit and vegetables (FV) intake among children have demonstrated success in short-term interventions. The Fit Game is a school-based intervention aimed at encouraging children to consume increasing amounts of FV during a game, which is a narrative. Just as children are being encouraged to eat FV at school, so is it equally important for them to eat FV at home. Parents strongly influence the amount of FV children consume at home. The aim of this thesis is to examine associations between factors that influence consumption of fruits and vegetables at and away from school …

The Impact Of The Updated National School Lunch Program Meal Standards On Fruit And Vegetable Consumption Among Elementary School Students In Cache County Utah, Jillian C. Fox

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Due to the short time the updated National School Lunch Program standards have been in place since fall of 2012, few research studies have explored what effect these new standards have had on fruit and vegetable (F/V) consumption, particularly among elementary school students. Because the new standards require schools to offer students more F/V than before, researchers are interested to know if F/V consumption has indeed increased.

The participants in the study were enrolled in a program to motivate students to eat more F/V – the Food Dudes program. The results of the data analysis found that most students, regardless …

Western Duck Sickness: Avian Botulism And Conservation In The Bear River Marsh, 1910-1933, Andrew J. Simek

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This thesis investigates how the Bear River marsh’s protection became a national interest and a cause for conservation in the Progressive Era. The thesis documents how the marsh declined because of irrigation development culminating with an outbreak of avian botulism in 1910, and traces the long process to protect the marshland. The research focused on examining local water development patterns of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, ornithological research in the 1910s, and the national sportsmen’s conservation movement of the 1920s. Upon examination of these events, it becomes clear that a coalition of ornithologists, sportsmen, and policy makers worked together …

Late Taino Occupation Of Jamaica: A Zooarchaeological Analysis Of Faunal Materials From The Bluefields Bay Site, Diana M. Azevedo

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

My thesis seeks to answer the broad questions: can early foragers alter marine resources in island settings and can archaeological data provide insights into these changes. These questions highlight two important issues. The first issue reflects the common belief that small-scale societies did not affect their environments. The second issue centers on growing concern over the collapse of fisheries across the globe.

To answer these questions, I use fish bones recovered from an archaeological site located in Belmont, Jamaica near the Bluefields Bay marine sanctuary. The Bluefields Bay site dates to the late Taíno occupation of Jamaica. The name Taíno …

Virulence Evolution Of Fungal Pathogens In Social And Solitary Bees With An Emphasis On Multiple Infections, Ellen G. Klinger

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The health of pollinators, especially bees, is of the utmost importance to success of many agricultural ecosystems. Microorganisms can cause diseases in bees; such microbes are pathogenic. The ability of a pathogen to cause harm to its host (such as a bee) is termed its virulence. Studying the evolution of different levels of virulence can lead researchers to a better understanding of pathogens, and potentially predict how much harm a pathogen can cause in the future. We studied the evolution of virulence levels for a fungal disease of bees. This group of fungi is composed of 28 species, and some …