Digital Commons Network^™

Improving Communication Of Uncertainty And Risk Of High-Impact Weather Through Innovative Forecaster Workshops, Brian A. Colle, Rosemary Auld, Kenneth Johnson, Christine O'Connell, Temis G. Taylor, Joshua Rice

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

It is challenging to communicate uncertainty for high-impact weather events to the public and decision-makers. As a result, there is an increased emphasis and training within the National Weather Service (NWS) for “impact-based decision support.” A Collaborative Science, Technology, And Research (CSTAR) project led by Stony Brook University (SBU) in collaboration with the Alan Alda Center for Communicating Science, several NWS forecast offices, and NWS operational centers held two workshops at SBU on effective forecast communication of probabilistic information for high-impact weather. Trainers in two 1.5-day workshops helped 15–20 forecasters learn to distill their messages, engage audiences, and more effectively …

Photons From Nir Leds Can Delay Flowering In Short-Day Soybean And Cannabis: Implications For Phytochrome Activity, Paul Kusuma, F. Mitchell Westmoreland, Shuyang Zhen, Bruce Bugbee

Plants, Soils and Climate Student Research

Photons during the dark period delay flowering in short-day plants (SDP). Red photons applied at night convert phytochromes to the active far-red absorbing form (P_fr), leading to inhibition of flowering. Far-red photons (greater than 700 nm) re-induce flowering when applied after a pulse of red photons during the dark period. However, far-red photons at sufficiently high intensity and duration delay flowering in sensitive species. Mechanistically, this response occurs because phytochrome-red (P_r) absorbance is not zero beyond 700 nm. We applied nighttime photons from near infrared (NIR) LEDs (peak 850 nm) over a 12 h dark period. …

Reduced Fecundity In Free-Ranging Norway Rats After Baiting With A Liquid Fertility Control Bait, Gary W. Witmer, Stefanie Raymond-Whish

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Norway rats (Rattus norvegicus) cause extensive crop loss, infrastructure damage, and are vectors for zoonotic diseases. Due to reduced efficacy, environmental and animal welfare concerns related to traditional pest management tools, such as rodenticides, it is imperative to find new methods for controlling commensal rodents. Fertility control is emerging as a safe, humane, and effective method of long-term population management. Vinylcyclohexene diepoxide (VCD) and triptolide are 2 compounds that are known to target and inhibit ovarian function. Furthermore, triptolide debilitates spermatogenesis and sperm motility. We prepared liquid bait containing no active ingredients (control) or containing VCD (0.098%) and …

Cranial Cruciate Ligament Desmotomies In Sheep Resulting In Peroneus Tertius Injury, Peter J. Welsh, Crystal G. Collier, Holly M. Clement, Michael N. Vakula, Jeffrey B. Mason

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Student Research

Surgical destabilization of the stifle joint via cranial cruciate ligament desmotomy (CCLD) is a routine procedure for the study of osteoarthritis (OA). Traditionally performed in rats, rabbits, cats, and dogs, CCLD in sheep provides an opportunity to study the pathology and treatment of joint instability in a species whose stifle better represents the equivalent human femorotibial joint. The surgical approaches for CCLD in sheep are variable and can result in inconsistent outcomes. Eight sheep underwent CCLD for use in a gene therapy study. We report this case in which six of the eight sheep were clinically diagnosed by pathognomonic signs …

Characteristics Of Non-Fatal Attacks By Black Bears: Conterminous United States, 2000–2017, Janel M. Scharhag, Cady Sartini, Shawn M. Crimmins, Scott E. Hygnstrom, Jeffrey B. Stetz

Human–Wildlife Interactions

Attacks on humans by bears (Ursus spp.) have increased in recent decades, as both human and bear populations have increased. To help mitigate the risk of future attacks, it is important to understand the circumstances in past attacks. Information and analyses exist regarding fatal attacks by both American black bears (Ursus americanus) and brown bears (U. arctos) as well as non-fatal attacks by brown bears. No similarly thorough analyses on non-fatal attacks by black bears are available. Our study addressed this information gap by analyzing all (n = 210) agency-confirmed, non-fatal attacks by black …

Collaborative Research: Ecological Legacy Effects Of Megacarcasses In African Savanna Ecosystems, Johan Du Toit

Funded Research Records

No abstract provided.

Gusanos Canker, Marion Murray, Celina Wille

All Current Publications

Los gusanos canker, también conocidos como gusanos pulgadas, pertenecen al orden Lepidóptera y a la familia Geometridae. Las polillas adultas geométridas tienen cuerpos delgados y alas anteriores relativamente grandes y anchas. Tanto los gusanos canker de otoño, Alsophila pometaria, como los de primavera, Paleacrita vernata, se encuentran en Utah, siendo el gusano canker de otoño el más común.

Insectos Cara De Gato, Diane G. Alston, Marion Murray, Celina Wille

All Current Publications

Hay una serie de insectos con el hábito alimenticio de perforar y succionar que pueden causar deformidad y lesiones del tipo cara de gato en los frutales de pepita y hueso, como la chinche ligus, la chinche hedionda y la chinche del boxelder. La lesión cara de gato es causada cuando la chinche se alimenta agujerando los botones florales y la fruta. El resultado son depresiones, deformidades y cicatrices desagradables en la fruta. El nombre “cara de gato” proviene de la forma distorsionada de la fruta que se asemeja a las mejillas fruncidas de un gato. Además de los insectos …

What Is Biochar And How Is It Used?, Marion Murray

All Current Publications

Biochar is a charcoal-like product that contains no petroleum. It is made by heating biomass such as herbaceous or woody crop residues, non-salvageable timber, and slash, or animal manure, in a contained system. There are many potential uses for biochar including water treatment, land reclamation, and carbon sequestration. Biochar may also be used as a soil amendment for two purposes – to improve plant health and to store carbon.

The Impact Of Covid-19 On Utah Women And Work: Caregiver Experiences, Marin Christensen, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

The COVID-19 pandemic of 2020–21 has affected workers across the globe, and women in the workforce have been disproportionately impacted, including those who live in Utah. The Kem C. Gardner Policy Institute at the University of Utah reported that from 2019 to 2020, jobs held by women declined at a rate more than double that of men, and unemployment rose more for females than males. One major reason for these discrepancies is likely the disproportionate burden women have carried for childcare and homeschooling children as daycare facilities and schools have been closed in efforts to curb the spread of the …

Enhancing Existing Isolated Underpasses With Fencing Reduces Wildlife Crashes And Connects Habitat, Bridget M. Donaldson, Kaitlyn E. M. Elliott

Human–Wildlife Interactions

The impact of wildlife–vehicle collisions on drivers and wildlife populations has been gaining attention in the United States. Given the established success of wildlife crossings with fencing in reducing wildlife crashes and connecting habitat, information is needed on cost-effective means of implementation for departments of transportation. When wildlife crossings are constructed, they are often built into new road projects as a series of 2 or more underpasses and/or overpass structures connected by exclusionary fencing. Given limited transportation budgets and the prevalence of maintenance activities more so than new construction in many states, enhancing existing underpasses on previously constructed roads has …

The Utah Statesman, July 5, 2021, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Experimental And Numerical Analysis Of The Hydraulic Jump Stilling Basin And The Downstream Scour Depth, L. J. Miranda, R. Sánchez

International Junior Researcher and Engineer Workshop on Hydraulic Structures

This paper presents a study of a tridimensional low-head hydraulic jump stilling basin by using both physical and numerical models. Laboratory tests up to 15 hours in duration were carried out in a 1.9 m wide and 14 m long flume. Four gates produced a jet with a submerged hydraulic jump in a positive-step stilling basin, after which scour developed in a nearly uniform sand bed. Acoustic Doppler Velocimeter, piezometers and image processing were used to collect the hydrodynamic data, and Reynolds Averaged Navier-Stokes simulations developed in OpenFOAM were tested for validation purposes. Then, the study focused on (1) the …

Understanding User's Behavior And Protection Strategy Upon Losing, Or Identifying Unauthorized Access To Online Account, Huzeyfe Kocabas, Swapnil Nandy, Tanjina Tamanna, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

A wide-range of personal and sensitive information are stored in users’ online accounts. Losing access, or an unauthorized access to one of those accounts could put them into the risks of privacy breach, cause financial loss, and compromise their accessibility to important information and documents. A large body of prior work focused on developing new schemes and strategies to protect users’ online security. However, there is a dearth in existing literature to understand users’ strategies and contingency plans to protect their online accounts once they lose access, or identify an unauthorized access to one of their accounts. We addressed this …

Understanding User Behavior, Information Exposure, And Privacy Risks In Managing Old Devices, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen, Tanjina Tamanna, Swapnil Nandy, Huzeyfe Kocabas

Computer Science Student Research

The goal of this study is to understand the behavior of users from developing countries in managing an old device (e.g., computer, mobile phone), which has been replaced by a new device, or suffers from technical issues providing a notion that it may stop working soon. The prior work explored the ecology and challenges of repairing old devices in developing regions. However, it is still understudied how the strategies of people from developing countries in managing their personal information on old devices could impact their digital privacy. To address this gap in existing literature, we conducted semi-structured interview with 52 …

An Analysis Of Utah Media: Women & Politics, Rebecca B. West, Lindsey Phillips, Trish Hatch, April Townsend, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

As women’s political presence and influence have slowly continued to increase, the way they have been represented in the media has also evolved. Research spanning the past several decades indicates that women politicians continue to be disadvantaged in the way they are covered by the media. From newspapers to primetime television, the way female political candidates are represented is a crucial topic; recent research indicates that women are dissuaded from even entering the political realm due to patterns of gendered media reporting and that “media both produces and reproduces sexism.” Research evaluating media representation of female political candidates spans both …

An Open Web-Based Module Developed To Advance Data-Driven Hydrologic Process Learning, Belize A. Lane, Irene Garousi-Nejad, Melissa A. Gallagher, David G. Tarboton, Emad Habib

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

The era of ‘big data’ promises to provide new hydrologic insights, and open web-based platforms are being developed and adopted by the hydrologic science community to harness these datasets and data services. This shift accompanies advances in hydrology education and the growth of web-based hydrology learning modules, but their capacity to utilize emerging open platforms and data services to enhance student learning through data-driven activities remains largely untapped. Given that generic equations may not easily translate into local or regional solutions, teaching students to explore how well models or equations work in particular settings or to answer specific problems using …

Advancing Transparency And Impact Of Research: Initiating Crosstalk Between Indigenous Research And Mainstream “Open Science”, P. Priscilla Lui, Monica C. Skewes, Sarah Gobrial, David Rollock

Journal of Indigenous Research

To answer questions about human psychology, psychological science needs to yield credible findings. Because of their goals of understanding people’s lived experiences and advocating for the needs of the Native communities, Indigenous scholars tend to use community-based participatory research (CBPR) or approach science from a constructivist framework. The primary goal of mainstream psychological science is to uncover generalizable facts about human functioning. Approached from a postpositivist framework, mainstream psychological scholars tend to assume the possibility of identifying researcher biases and achieving objective science. Recently, many psychological findings failed to replicate in new samples. The replication crisis has raised concerns about …

Fruits, Frugivores, And The Evolution Of Phytochemical Diversity, Susan R. Whitehead, Gerald F. Schneider, Ray Dybzinski, Annika S. Nelson, Mariana Gelambi, Elsa Jos, Noelle G. Beckman

Biology Faculty Publications

Plants produce an enormous diversity of secondary metabolites, but the evolutionary mechanisms that maintain this diversity are still unclear. The interaction diversity hypothesis suggests that complex chemical phenotypes are maintained because different metabolites benefit plants in different pairwise interactions with a diversity of other organisms. In this synthesis, we extend the interaction diversity hypothesis to consider that fruits, as potential hotspots of interactions with both antagonists and mutualists, are likely important incubators of phytochemical diversity. We provide a case study focused on the Neotropical shrub Piper reticulatum that demonstrates: 1) secondary metabolites in fruits have complex and cascading effects for …

Farmers Feeding Utah: Increasing Healthy Food Access And Supporting Local Agriculture, Heidi Leblanc, Casey Coombs

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The need for food assistance increased by 300% among Utah families as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Farmers and ranchers were also adversely impacted by market losses and processing shortages. In response, Farmers Feeding Utah was developed to facilitate access to fresh agricultural produce for families in need.

Decision-Making For Rewilding: An Adaptive Governance Framework For Social-Ecological Complexity, James R. A. Butler, Mariella Marzano, Nathalie Pettorelli, Sarah M. Durant, Johan T. Du Toit, Juliette C. Young

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Rewilding can be defined as the reorganisation or regeneration of wildness in an ecologically degraded landscape with minimal ongoing intervention. While proposals for rewilding are increasingly common, they are frequently controversial and divisive amongst stakeholders. If implemented, rewilding initiatives may alter the social-ecological systems within which they are situated and thus generate sudden and unforeseen outcomes. So far, however, much of the discourse on the planning and implementation of rewilding has focused on identifying and mitigating ecological risks. There has been little consideration of how rewilding could alter the human components of the social-ecological systems concerned, nor governance arrangements that …

Community Supported Agriculture: Accepting Snap Payments, Kelsey Hall, Roslynn Mccann

All Current Publications

Participating in a community supported agriculture (CSA) share is one way for individuals with low income to use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits in buying local, seasonal fruits and vegetables. The U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Food and Nutrition Service (USDA FNS) authorizes businesses to accept SNAP benefits, including direct marketing farmers and nonprofit food buying cooperatives operating a CSA. SNAP is the largest federal nutrition assistance program, formerly known as food stamps. Eligible individuals and families use an Electronic Benefit Transfer (EBT) card, similar to a debit card, to purchase eligible food at SNAP authorized vendors. In Utah, …

The Utah Statesman, June 7, 2021, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Chapter 3- How Adult Education Can Inform Optimal Online Learning, David S. Noffs, Kristina Wilson

Resilient Pedagogy

David's Story

I first met Krissy Wilson in 2015 when I was asked to design a new graduate course at Northwestern University on learning environment design. Krissy was part of the talented Distance Learning team in the School of Professional Studies. I was a teacher, instructional specialist, and reluctant learning management system administrator at an arts-based city college where I had worked for almost 15 years.

Krissy's Story

I got to know David Noffs first as a faculty member in the Master in Information Design and Strategy program in the School of Professional Studies at Northwestern University. Before he joined …

Chapter 4- Advancing An Approach Of Resilient Design For Learning By Designing For Extensibility, Flexibility, And Redundancy, Rebecca M. Quintana, Jacob Fortman, James Devaney

Resilient Pedagogy

The impact of the COVID-19 crisis on educational systems requires actors across those systems to develop adaptive capacity and embed resilient thinking into approaches and frameworks for decision-making and design (DeVaney & Quintana, 2020). Events surrounding the COVID-19 crisis have set off a period of rapid adaptation across the higher-education ecosystem and have necessitated that educators consider new pedagogical approaches and frameworks that are responsive to the changes we are witnessing in our contexts of teaching and learning (Chraa et al., 2020; Donovan, 2020; Moorhouse, 2020; Quintana & Quintana, 2020; Zhu & Liu, 2020).

Chapter 2- Productive Disruptions: Resilient Pedagogies That Advocate For Equity, Beth Buyserie, Rachel Welton Bryson, Rachel Quistberg

Resilient Pedagogy

When the COVID-19 pandemic shuttered universities in March 2020, many students and faculty were thrown into shifting uncertainties regarding course delivery and pedagogy. As the pandemic persisted, faculty and students experienced new stressors caused by social isolation, unequal access to technology and resources, economic distress, and many other factors. In addition, the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and others in the Black community sparked widespread social unrest that added to and compounded the emotional and material weight of the pandemic. Amid this tumult, higher-education faculty began asking questions about how to move forward with pedagogies resistant to unpredictable and …

Chapter 6- Resilient And Flexible Teaching (Raft): Integrating A Whole-Person Experience Into Online Teaching, Christina Fabrey, Heather Keith

Resilient Pedagogy

When venturing into wild or unknown territory such as a swiftly moving and ever-changing mountain river, a raft may be a necessary tool for basic survival. But what if during the careful navigation of rapid currents around rocks and other obstacles, you discover that your buoyant and flexible tool helps you to float through the fast and turbulent waters in a way that is meaningful, awe-inspiring, and exciting? As COVID-19 first hit our campuses, many of us switched to emergency remote education as a survival raft, just trying to stay afloat long enough to get to the other side of …

Chapter 7- Innovative Pedagogies For Promoting University Global Engagement In Times Of Crisis, Steven R. Hawks

Resilient Pedagogy

Even as universities, institutes, and professional associations are renewing their commitment to global engagement and the internationalization of higher-education campuses, there are significant geopolitical and social challenges that are pushing back (van der Wende, 2017). The immediate crisis posed by the global coronavirus pandemic (COVID-19) has further hampered progress by bringing a number of critical global engagement activities to a sudden halt (Brimmer, 2020). In the midst of these challenges there is an opportunity to consider theory-driven pedagogical innovations that can move the global engagement agenda forward even in times of complexity and crisis.

Chapter 9- A New Normal In Inclusive, Usable Online Learning Experiences, Christopher Phillips, Jared S. Colton

Resilient Pedagogy

The most obvious consequence of the COVID-19 pandemic in higher education has been more students accessing their classes remotely without having the technology and other resources readily available on their local campuses. Students from underrepresented groups have been disproportionately affected as a result of COVID-19, particularly students of color (Alvarez, 2020) and students with disabilities (Hill, 2020; National Center, 2020). This neglect of underrepresented groups in higher education is not unique to the pandemic, of course, and sadly is nothing new to higher education, but COVID-19 has made this problem more apparent.

Chapter 10- Building Online Toolkits To Support The Development Of Academic Skills And Digital Literacies, Jenae Cohn

Resilient Pedagogy

Personal, environmental, and academic factors contribute to student persistence and retention in college environments in varying and, importantly, intersecting ways. As educators determine what supporting student success in a post-COVID-19 world looks like, it is important to consider how these factors become all the more complicated by the new challenges raised with ubiquitous remote or hybridized learning. The global shift to online learning has opened tremendous gaps in experiences that students might have in learning, working, living, and socializing online. Some students may lack access to laptop computers for learning, while others may not have sufficient broadband access to connect …