Digital Commons Network^™

Urban Edibles: Weeds, Roslynn Brian

All Current Publications

They invade your garden, tap your soil’s precious nutrients and grow quicker than lightning strikes. If you can’t beat them, eat them! Increase your garden’s yield by identifying the edible weeds and adding them to your harvest.

Dermatopathy In Juvenile Angus Cattle Due To Vitamin A Deficiency, Thomas J. Baldwin, Kerry A. Rood, E. Jane Kelly, Jeffery O. Hall

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

In juvenile cattle, vitamin A deficiency is reported most commonly as a neurological condition; only rarely are there dermatologic manifestations. In the current study, alopecia, severe epidermal and follicular orthokeratosis, and acanthosis due to hypovitaminosis A are reported in 2 of 32 Angus calves, with a third animal suspected. Affected animals responded to vitamin A supplementation, and no additional calves displayed signs. Vitamin A acts on skin by regulating DNA transcription in keratinocytes, reducing the number of tonofilaments and desmosomes, both involved in cell-to-cell adhesion. Hence, adequate levels of dietary vitamin A are necessary for normal keratinocyte turnover, and deficiencies …

2011 Annual Report, Various Authors

Annual Reports

No abstract provided.

Utah State University Commencement, 2012 – Main Campus, Utah State University

Commencement Programs

125^th Annual Commencement of Utah State University.

Development Of Methods For Assessing The Effect Of Moisture And Aging On Sliceability Of Cheese, Jess Perrie

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

Sliceability is a cheese’s ability to cut cleanly into thin slices, resist breakage or fracture at slices edges, and undergo a high level of bending before breaking. Intuitively, sliceability depends on the chemistry, microstructural, and rheological properties of the casein network. Currently there is no reported scientific research investigating evaluation methods of cheese slice quality, as well as properties that influence a cheese’s ability to slice.

In this study, a method for slice quality evaluation was developed on purchased cheese and performed on commercial cheeses and experimental cheeses manufactured at three different moisture contents (40.6%, 37.0%, and 33.9%). In addition, …

Cattle Browsing Sagebrush Steppe During Fall: Effects On Plant Community Structure And Influence Of Experience On Cattle Foraging Behavior And Body Weights, Charles A. Petersen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Historic and repetitious spring grazing by livestock, combined with altered fire regimes, has increased the density and abundance of big sagebrush and reduced the frequency of perennial grasses and forbs on many western landscapes. Periodic disturbance is critical for maintaining and improving sagebrush ecosystems. Compared with traditional disturbances – chemical, mechanical, and fire – strategic grazing with livestock offers several benefits. They include creating locally adapted cattle that can rejuvenate sagebrush steppe, which reduces costs associated with mechanical and chemical rejuvenation treatments and feeding cattle during winter, the major cost of ranch operation.

I evaluated the practicality of strategically timed …

Ensuring Microbial Safety In Food Product/Process Development: Alternative Processing Of Meat Products And Pathogen Survival In Low-Salt Cheddar Cheese, Subash Shrestha

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Most outbreaks of foodborne illness in the United States occur as a result of improper food-handling and preparation practices in homes or food establishments. The lack of food-safety knowledge is one of the several reasons for this. However, researchers also suggest that food-operators and consumers with adequate food-safety knowledge, attitudes, and intentions do not always follow the food-safety recommendations because not all recommendations are easy to put into practice. Therefore, the first part of this study sought to establish safe alternative processing of meat products that can be easily practiced by food-operators and consumers. In Chapter 3, a novel method …

Wheat-Gold Currency How To Make Large-Scale Grain Storage Possible, David L. Garrett

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The United States has a National Oil Reserve but no food reserve. Just as the oil reserve is designed to buffer unforeseen disruptions in the critical supply, the nation should also have a food reserve for at least the same purpose.

Increasing The Retention Of Lipid-Soluble Components In A Curd Matrix, Megan Tippetts

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Megan Tippetts, under the direction of Dr. Silvana Martini at Utah State University, proposes to demonstrate that it is possible to increase the retention of lipid-soluble components (e.g. vitamin D) in a curd matrix (e.g. Cheddar cheese). This project was coordinated with the Western Dairy Center for the initial phase of the project.

The initial phase used vitamin D₃ fortified emulsions stabilized with a dairy-based emulsifier. The objective was to determine if vitamin D₃ delivered in an emulsion form to the milk before cheesemake would have higher retention in the cheese versus vitamin D₃ oil added directly …

Social Organization And Decision Making In North American Bison: Implications For Management, Ryan A. Shaw

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Social organization varies widely among herbivores, and the level of social organization in bison is widely debated. I hypothesized that when mother-daughter relationships are allowed to develop, bison form long-term associations. In my study, 25 treatment mothers were selected from a free-ranging herd and kept together with their calves, while 25 control females had their calves forcefully removed. Treatment mothers and offspring had by far the greatest number of associations with a greater percentage of individuals with a half weight index (HWI) > 0.50. The strongest associations (HWI > 0.31) were among treatment mothers and their offspring. Moreover, these associations persisted over …

Integration Of Nutrition Education Classes Into English As Second Language Classes For Refugees, Sarah Gunnell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Each year approximately 73,000 refugees are resettled into the United States because it is unsafe for them to return to their country of origin. Resettlement agencies help refugees learn about their new environment and provide assistance with housing, food, English classes, and job skills training. The goal of resettlement programs is to help refugees become self-sufficient as quickly as possible.

Recently resettled refugees face many challenges that make it difficult to eat healthy food. Transportation, English skills, and conflicting work hours are some of the barriers to receiving nutrition education. This research evaluated the integration of nutrition lessons into English …

Parent Nutrition Education And The Influence On Family Lifestyle Behavior Changes, Kelsey Rich

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Utah State University in the collaboration with the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education (SNAP-Ed) proposes to develop and implement a program to help families develop healthy eating habits and lifestyle behaviors. Recently, childhood overweight and obesity has reached epidemic proportions. The diseases associated with adult obesity are now being seen in the pediatric population; therefore, there is a call for preventative efforts. A diet high in fruits, vegetables, and whole grains in combination with an active lifestyle discourages the presence of obesity. Currently, most childhood obesity prevention efforts have taken place in the school setting and have only had short term …

Livestock Foraging Behavior In Response To Sequence And Interactions Among Alkaloids, Tannins, And Saponins, Tiffanny L. Jensen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

During the past several decades, people worldwide have expressed a growing interest in reconstructing ecosystems to enhance ecological, economic, and social values. Yet, to do so we must find ways to enhance biodiversity, environmental quality and the sustainability of grazing lands. In all these instances, plants are the glue that binds soils, water, herbivores, and people. However, monocultures or simple grass-legume mixtures are not always ideal for intensively managed pastures due to their seasonality, susceptibility to pests, and monotony of plant nutrients and toxins. All plants contain so-called “toxins,” more appropriately referred to as secondary compounds, which are crucial in …

Use Of Rumen Modifiers To Manipulate Ruminal Fermentation And Improve Nutrient Utilization And Lactational Performance Of Dairy Cows, Christopher M. Dschaak

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

A series of lactation studies reported in this dissertation hypothesized that supplementing different rumen modifiers would have consistent responses on ruminal fermentation and lactational performance under optimal rumen conditions.

The first experiment investigated the influence of magnesium exchanged zeolite on ruminal fermentation and lactational performance. Intake of dry matter (DM), milk yield, milk fat, and feed efficiency were not affected. Milk protein concentration tended (P = 0.15) to be higher for cows fed the zeolite. Ruminal pH tended to increase (P = 0.11) by feeding the sodium bicarbonate or the zeolite.

A second lactation experiment determined …

A Multicase Study Of The Impact Of Perceived Gender Roles On The Career Decisions Of Women In Science-Related Careers, Stephen Frank Hren

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

This study was done to determine how the perception of gender roles developed throughout childhood and early adulthood affected the career decisions of women who showed early promise in science. In addition, this study was done to determine if my experiences as a researcher would have any impact on me personally. Four women were chosen as case study participants, providing for comparison within and across cases.

Gender roles were found to relate to the career decisions made by the four cases in three ways: (a) support from family members, teachers, mentors, and collaborators; (b) opportunities within the family, school and …

Determining Compost Carryover For Optimal Use In An Organic Corn Squash Rotation, Davey J.R. Olsen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

In 2008–2011 a graduate project was undertaken by Davey Olsen under the supervision of Utah State University (USU) Plant, Soils and Climate professors, Drs. Jennifer Reeve, Dan Drost, and Astrid Jacobson. The project investigated a new way of measuring the benefits of applying compost to organically certified horticultural crops. In particular, the carryover of these benefits in the three years following a one-time application was studied. A field trial at the USU Organic Farm modeled the carryover of nitrogen and phosphorus in a corn and squash rotation, while laboratory analysis investigated aspects of nitrogen availability and compost decomposition over time. …

Isolation And Purification Of Anthocyanins From Black Bean Wastewater Using Macroporous Resins, Xiaoxi Wang

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Isolation and purification of anthocyanins from black bean canning wastewater by column chromatography with macroporous resins were investigated in this study. Different adsorption materials and adsorption conditions were compared and the most effective material and adsorption conditions were selected to purify anthocyanins. Purified anthocyanins then were identified by high performance liquid chromatography electrospray tandem mass spectrometry. The most effective macroporous resin was selected by comparing the adsorption performance of five different types of macroporous resins (Diaion Hp20, Sepabeads Sp70, Sepabeads Sp207, Sepabeads Sp700, and Sepabeads Sp710). Equilibrium adsorption isotherms of five resins with wastewater were measured and analyzed using Langmuir …

Interactive Random Forests Plots, Anna T. Quach

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

Random Forests is a useful data mining tool that is quite popular in finding variable importance. However, many people don’t make use of the Random Forests results in interactive graphs. Partly, this is because software packages that can do interactive graphs can’t handle large data sets and those that use Random Forests have large data sets or many variables. A new software package in R, known as iPlots eXtreme, that is still in development makes it simple to explore large data sets interactively. I have created a function, called irfplot (interactive random forests plot) that specifically uses Random Forests to …

Preschool Nutrition Education And Influences On Food Neophobia, Kelsey Eller

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

Food neophobia, the fear of new foods, has been identified as a significant barrier to the intake of healthy foods, including fruits and vegetables in young children. Food neophobia can hinder dietary quality as well as dietary variety by limiting the development of food preferences. It has also been suggested that neophobia is linked to the development of childhood obesity, and due to the escalating epidemic of childhood obesity that is known to be associated with serious health complications, interventions that target food neophobia in preschool aged children may be successful in improving healthy eating habits and potentially reversing the …

The Effectiveness Of An Adapted Snap-Ed (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program-Education) Curriculum For Adults With Intellectual Or Developmental Disabilities, Amanda Panting

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

Rates of overweight and obese adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities in the United States are high and associated with increased risk of chronic diseases. Many of these adults are trying to become more independent in the community and live in group homes where care is managed by a paid employee. Group home managers assist clients with daily living such as shopping and meal preparation and play an important role in their care. Nutrition and healthy behavior choices are important to help keep this population independent and decrease risks of excess weight and related diseases. Many group home managers and …

Ethnic Disparities In Prenatal Care Utilization In Vietnam, Ha Ngoc Trinh

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

Prenatal care is credited with reducing neonatal, perinatal, and maternal mortality and morbidity. The main purpose of the thesis is to examine the ethnic disparities between majority and ethnic minority women in prenatal care usage. The thesis also analyzes the effects of age, education attainment, female employment, and region on prenatal care utilization in Vietnam. I employ the Demographic and Health Survey 2002 in Vietnam. Descriptive statistic and logistic regression are the two statistical tests employed in this research. Results exhibit evidence of ethnic disparities in type of prenatal care utilization. Although ethnic minority women are likely to enter prenatal …

Where's The Justice? A Review Of The Local Food Movement Through A Reflexive Lens, Colyn Kilmer

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

As the local food movement has gained momentum over the past several years, so too has it garnered critiques from academic scholars. This literature review identified academic critiques of the local food movement. These critiques were organized into four general categories. A fifth category, reflexivity, was identified, which functioned as both a critique and a way to address the other four categories of critique. This review paired the four categories of academic critique with ways in which several academic scholars suggested reflexivity could be used to resolve these critiques. This review was designed to give scholars, practitioners, and consumers associated …

The Capability Of The Functional Movement Screen To Predict Injury In Division I Male And Female Track And Field Athletes, Brent Matthew Appel

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

Track and field, formally know as athletics, formed part of the first Olympics in 776 BC and was included in the first modern Olympic Games in 1896 (Quercetany, 2000). Ever since the creation of this sport, sport related injury has followed. The inevitability of musculoskeletal injury associated with sports in general is well known amongst its participants, and the people who research it. According to the NCAA Injury Surveillance System, a sixteen year sampling period (1988 through 2004), recorded 182,000 injuries (Hootman, Dick, & Agel, 2007). Despite the risk for injury, people continue to participate in track and field. During …

Development Of Nutrition Education Modules For Dietetic Undergraduate Students To Increase Counseling Skills, Jenna Tulane Stephens

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

Objectives:
(1) To research effective methods for creating computer-assisted instruction for development of counseling skills
(2) Incorporate acquired knowledge into nutrition counseling modules for undergraduate dietetic students to provide increased practice working with real life situations

Intervention: Five modules were created for undergraduate students to better develop their nutrition counseling skills. The modules give students a way to practice counseling theories, methods, and techniques while working with virtual patients in a controlled environment. Research was conducted to assist development of the modules both technically and with content.

Implementation: Modules will be implemented into courses at Utah State University and students …

Moving Toward Culture Change: Defining Skilled Nursing Facility Residents Dining Style Preferences, Katheryn Adams

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

Background Public policy fulfillment coupled with skilled nursing facility's desire to increase quality of service to meet changes in residents' expectations and improve marketability warrant a new look at culture change and home like dining as defined by the residents in skilled nursing facilities.

Objective The objectives of this study were to determine residents' home dining practices, define residents' desired dining style practices in the skilled nursing facility and determine the relationship between at home dining and dining preferences in skilled nursing facilities.

Design The quasi-experimental study started with a convenience sample taken from a facility generated potential participant list. …

Effect Of Deposition From Static Rocket Test Fires On Corn And Alfalfa, Scout Mendenhall

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

A greenhouse study was conducted to determine the effects of deposition from static rocket test fires on corn and alfalfa. Seeds were germinated in a wide concentration range of depositional material, called test fire soil (TFS). Additionally, the impact of chloride and aluminum, two major components of test fire soil, on germination was also evaluated. Furthermore, plants were grown in packed columns and exposed to test fire soil, either in the root zone or on foliage. Tissue was weighed and analyzed to compare biomass production and plant composition.

Corn and alfalfa exposed to test fire soil in the root zone …

Metabolic-Cost Comparison Of Running On An Aquatic Treadmill With Water-Jets And Land Treadmill With Incline, Ryan R. Porter

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

Purpose: This study investigated whether running on a land treadmill (TM) at specific inclines corresponded to an equivalent metabolic cost (MC, oxygen consumption, VO2) using water-jets on an aquatic treadmill (ATM) at equivalent running speeds. Methods: Sixteen participants completed two trials on separate days on a TM and ATM. For each trial subjects performed eighteen, 3-4 min submaximal runs at three self selected speeds (slow, medium, and fast) with either water-jet resistances of 0-100% of maximum jet flow capacity in 20% increments during ATM or inclines of 0-10% in 2% increments during TM. Trials were separated by at least 48 …

Determining The Effect Of One-On-One Education In Addition To Written Material On Breastfeeding Initiation Rates In The Hospital Setting, Carly Elizabeth Grace

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

The objective of this research was to determine the breastfeeding initiation rate among healthy, term infants at a select hospital, the effect of one-on-one breastfeeding education, in addition to written material on breastfeeding initiation rates in the hospital setting, and if other factors from available data are associated with differences in breastfeeding initiation. This was a quasi-experimental convenience sample study with subjects assigned to a control group (written education) or intervention group (written and one-on-one education). The setting was the obstetrics unit at Siloam Springs Memorial Hospital (Benton County, Arkansas). Subjects were women delivering infants without complication between March and …

The Relationship Of Outdoor Recreation And Gardening With Depression Among Individuals With Disabilities, Justin Floyd Wilson

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Activities involving natural environments have positive psychological impacts on participants. Both outdoor recreation and gardening have been shown to reduce feelings of depression. However, the effects of these activities on the depression levels of individuals with disabilities have not yet been studied. In order to better understand the relationship between these activities and depression among individuals with disabilities, two separate studies were conducted.

The first study seeks to better understand the relationship between outdoor recreation participation and depression among Montana residents with disabilities using publicly available Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) data. It hypothesizes that depression would be negatively …

Chemical Characterization Of Meat Related To Animal Diet, Rossarin Tansawat

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

There is currently much interest in increasing health benefits from consuming nutritious food, including beef. Plant secondary compounds (PSC) such as tannins or saponins in various forages have an influence on animal nutrition and health, depending on the type of PSC and the amount consumed. However, relatively little is known about effects of PSC on meat color, flavor, and nutritional value. Thus, additional information is needed to better understand and to develop new animal feeding regimes for optimum animal growth, meat flavor, and meat nutritional quality.

In the first study, grain- vs. pasture-fed beef rib steaks were evaluated. The objective …