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Demonstration Farm Provides Educational Opportunity For Ipm, Nick Volesky, Mair Murray

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The mission of USU Extension’s Integrated Pest Management (IPM) program is to increase the use of sustainable pest management practices within urban and rural landscapes to provide economic, human, and environmental health in Utah. In the spring of 2022, the IPM program established a vegetable farm to test and demonstrate IPM practices. The farm served as an experiential learning classroom for almost 50 farmers and home gardeners.

Outcomes Of The Thriving Hives Beginning Beekeeping Extension Education, Andree' Walker Bravo

Outcomes and Impact Quarterly

The Thriving Hives Beginning Beekeeping Education program caters to novice beekeepers to promote best practices, confidence in beekeeping skills, and healthy apiaries around the state. A major objective of the program is to educate participants on the management of Varroa mites in their hives.

The Spray-On Bio-Bandage, Kristine Peterson, Amanda Moravek, Abby Edward

Fall Student Research Symposium 2022

Fibrin is a natural polymer already used in extreme clinical settings as an adhesive and for shallow wounds when activated by the enzyme thrombin. However, current formations contain irritants, are slow drying, and are not easily washed off. This study used a spray-on bandage composed of thrombin and fibrinogen on a monolayer of 3T3 mouse fibroblast cells to test the enhancement of the body's natural healing without the risks of current formulations. The viability and growth of scratched cells were analyzed using live/dead stain assays 0, 1, and 3 days post-treatment. The results of this study showed cell growth, fibrinogen …

Utah State Engineer, Fall 2022, College Of Engineering

College of Engineering Magazines

Annual magazine for the College of Engineering at Utah State University.

Interview With Michelle Baker, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Patrick Belmont, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Frank Galey, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Jagath Kaluarachchi, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Gina Landaverde, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With John Mortensen, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Helen Bond Plylar, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Kieth Roper, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Understanding The Barriers To Carbon Farming On Private Lands, Harrison Naftel

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

Climate change caused by manmade greenhouse gas emissions is one of the most important challenges facing society today. Through effective management for carbon sequestration private agricultural lands could become an important part of the solution to this problem. This paper explores the many different methods that farmers, ranchers, and landowners could use to implement sequestration on their land and examines the barriers to further participation in these projects by reviewing the challenges in the world’s current carbon offset markets and offering possible solutions.

Increasing Production Of Therapeutic Mabs In Cho Cells Through Genetic Engineering, Charles Barentine

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Between 2014 and 2018, the global market for therapeutic monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) rose from $60 billion to $115.2 billion with a projected value of $300 billion by 2025. These molecules are used to effectively treat some of the most challenging illnesses from auto-immune diseases to cancer. While mAbs are highly valuable with potent applications, their production at scale remains an outstanding challenge. These molecules are largely produced in Chinese Hamster Ovary (CHO) cells that require highly specific conditions to produce a useful product.

Genetic engineering presents one solution to overcome productivity limits. With the advent of CRISPR (clustered regularly interspaced …

Avian Species Distribution Models: Using Location Data To Inform Management Decisions, Marilyn E. Wright

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Both state and federal wildlife agencies strive to conserve and protect wildlife and their habitats as an important public resource. Applied management decisions often rely on being able to obtain data that can efficiently and effectively enhance the understanding of these systems for informing management actions. Wildlife managers often focus efforts on a small subset of species from an ecosystem, typically called focal species, who can serve as surrogates for understanding the health and function of the system. Models that consider how these focal species interact with the ecosystem are often used to better understand important aspects of their life …

Bugs, Bullets And Birds: Factors Affecting The Health And Survival Of Ferruginous Hawk Nestlings In The Intermountain West, Ellis A. Juhlin

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Ferruginous Hawks are a bird of prey species that nest in sagebrush steppe and grassland habitat. These birds are threatened by habitat loss and fragmentation from urbanization, rural development, oil and natural gas extraction, habitat treatment projects, and wildfires, and experiencing widespread population declines across their breeding range. Because of this, Ferruginous Hawks (FEHAs) have been deemed a Species of Greatest Conservation Need by state management agencies in Utah, Idaho, Wyoming and Nevada. The health and survival of Ferruginous Hawk (FEHA) nestlings is crucial to long-term population viability. Understanding the threats these birds are facing as nestlings can provide valuable …

Extreme, Positive Geomorphic Change In A Historically Degraded Desert River: Implications For Imperiled Fishes, Tansy T. Remiszewski

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Rivers comprise some of the most unique and biodiverse ecosystems on the planet with their waters supporting both human societies as well as the organisms that make these rivers their home. Large rivers like the Colorado are often highly regulated and diverted in order to support human residence in arid regions like the desert Southwest, and these water diversions often have dramatic, negative impacts on the natural flow regime of the river. These impacts leave large reaches of the river dry, reduce the river’s capacity to transport sediment, cause channel and habitat homogenization, and significantly reduce the amount of suitable …

Seed Ecology And Regeneration Processes To Inform Seed-Based Wetland Restoration, Emily E. Tarsa

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Wetlands provide immense value to wildlife and humans but have been degrading rapidly around the world. One major challenge is the loss of native plant species in wetlands, which limits the ability of wetlands to function as they should. Restoring wetlands requires a combination of removing the cause of degradation (such as invasive plant species) and, in many cases, actively returning native plants to the site especially via seeding. Further, early plant life stages are the most vulnerable for plants and is often the time in which sown species die and fail to establish. Thus, understanding how and why seeds …

Development Of In Situ Second-Order Nonlinear Optical Scatterings For Molecular Behaviors At Aerosol Surfaces, Yuqin Qian

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Aerosol particles are one of the most important components of the atmosphere. During the growth of aerosol particles, they directly or indirectly affect air quality, human health, and environmental chemistry. Therefore, understanding the chemical and physical properties of such particles is an important scientific, engineering, and medical issue. The growth of aerosol particles in the atmosphere is closely related to the chemical structure at its surface, as well as the heterogeneous reactions which take place at and below the particle’s surface. However, there is a lack of suitable surface-specific analytical techniques which directly measure the chemical structure of aerosol particle …

The Relationship Between Bird Species Richness And Human Appropriation Of Net Primary Productivity, Kaeli Mueller

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

As humans harvest increasing amounts of biomass, it is crucial to gain an understanding of how much energy is being appropriated and the impact that this could have on ecosystems and biodiversity. The primary way in which humans impact biodiversity loss is through land use change. One way of quantifying the impact of land use change is through human appropriation of net primary production (HANPP). This measurement represents the total amount of energy derived from photosynthesis that humans remove from ecosystems and appropriate for their own use. My research studies the relationship between HANPP and bird species richness at the …

Dust Deposition Changes Production, Chlorophyll-A And Community Composition In Mountain Lakes, Jiahao Wen

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Increasing quantities of dust emitted from semi-arid soils, agricultural soils, and urban regions are blown to remote mountain lakes in the American West. Remote mountain lakes lacking local nutrient inputs and presenting simple food webs that are easily affected by climate changes. Dust can carry nutrients (e.g., nitrogen and phosphorus) to mountain lakes and potentially enhance algae growth and change algal communities. However, experimental tests of this hypothesis are lacking. Using in situ experiments, we investigated the effects of dust enrichment on the production, biomass, and primary algal species in three mountain lakes in the American West. We found that …

Nest‐Site Selection, Success, And Response To Predators By Cinnamon Teal And Other Ground‐Nesting Ducks In The Wetlands Of Great Salt Lake, Utah, Mark E. Bell

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

The wetlands of Great Salt Lake once supported hundreds of thousands of nesting ducks each year. In recent years, the number of nesting ducks in the same area was a fraction of those historic numbers. While many species of ducks do not rely on these wetlands for primary nesting habitat, cinnamon teal (Spatula cyanoptera) do. Great Salt Lake and its associated wetlands are in the heart of the cinnamon teal breeding range, and once supported half of the continental population.

These wetlands are unique from other wetlands where waterfowl nest because they are artificially created using dams to hold …

Functional Characterization Of The Newly Discovered Type V Crispr-Cas Protein Cas12a2, Dylan J. Keiser

All Graduate Theses and Dissertations, Spring 1920 to Summer 2023

Similarly to people, bacteria are under the treat of infection by viruses. To circumvent these threats, bacteria evolve complex immune systems. Our understanding of some of these immune systems has led to many advancements in the field of Biotechnology including tools that made expressing proteins for study in a lab easier, tools that revolutionized the feasibility of gene editing, and tools that could change the way we think about viral diagnostics and cancer therapeutics. A certain type of immune system that bacteria use to fight virus is called a CRISPR system. Presented here is work to understand the function of …

Interview With Al Savitzky, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Lianna Etchberger, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Greg Dart, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Valerie Crowley, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Dave Cowley, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

Interview With Paul Barr, Utah State University Special Collections & Archives

Utah State University COVID-19 Oral History Collection

No abstract provided.

From Lesson Plan To Observation To Self-Assessment In A Chinese As A Second Language Class, Yu-Shan Lin

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

This portfolio is a compilation of what the author has learned in the field of Chinese as a second language in the Master of Second Language Teaching program at Utah State University. There are three main sections in the portfolio. The first section contains the author’s teaching philosophy statement, with a focus on the communicative approach, a game-based approach, and alternative assessment. The second section consists of a reflection on a classroom observation. The main paper presents how the author designed a lesson plan and implemented it, as well as her analysis and introspection on a video recording of the …