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The Positive Effect Of Role Models In Evolution Instruction, Emily A. Holt, T. Heath Ogden, Susan L. Durham

Ecology Center Publications

Background: Previous research has identified numerous factors to explain why students have difficulty learning about evolution. Some of these factors include a student’s background (including their religion and major of study), the type of evolution instruction, and the inclusion of the nature of science (NOS) instruction. Sparse but more recent work has investigated the impact of a religious-scientist role model to help dampen perceptions of conflict between evolutionary science and worldview. We had two research goals: (1) to identify which of these factors influence students’ learning of evolution in post-secondary education; and (2) to describe the relationships among incoming …

A Digital Dilemma | College Of Engineering, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

In the United States, we’ve accumulated an estimated 500 million specimens of animals, plants, bugs and mushrooms.

Student Wins The “Earth Champions Contest” Video Contest | Sustainable Waste-To-Bioproducts Engineering Center, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

Biological Engineering student video of capstone design project won the “Earth Champions Contest” sponsored by the Resources for Future Generations (RFG).

Generalist And Specialist Mite Herbivores Induce Similar Defense Responses In Maize And Barley But Differ In Susceptibility To Benzoxazinoids, Huyen Bui, Robert Greenhalgh, Alice Ruckert, Gunbharpur S. Gill, Sarah Lee, Ricardo A. Ramirez, Richard M. Clark

Biology Faculty Publications

While substantial progress has been made in understanding defense responses of cereals to insect herbivores, comparatively little is known about responses to feeding by spider mites. Nevertheless, several spider mite species, including the generalist Tetranychus urticae and the grass specialist Oligonychus pratensis, cause damage on cereals such as maize and wheat, especially during drought stress. To understand defense responses of cereals to spider mites, we characterized the transcriptomic responses of maize and barley to herbivory by both mite species, and included a wounding control against which modulation of defenses could be tested. T. urticae and O. pratensis induced highly …

Effects Of Eutrophication On Birds In Three Bays Of Great Salt Lake: A Comparative Analysis With Utah Dwr Waterbird Survey Data, Wayne A. Wurtsbaugh

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Farmington Bay and Bear River support massive numbers of migratory birds. Because of Farmington Bay’s high nutrient loading and hypereutrophic condition, the Utah DWQ has proposed to list it as impaired under EPA’s and Utah’s 303d criteria. There is concern, however, that changing nutrient loading might influence invertebrate prey of birds, but it is not known if this would be a positive or negative effect. Bear River Bay is far less eutrophic, but has a similar shallow morphometry, and thus presents an ideal comparative opportunity to assess the influence of eutrophication on birds.

From 2007‐2011 the Utah Division of Wildlife …

Method For The Destruction Of Endotoxin In Synthetic Spider Silk Proteins, Richard E. Decker, Thomas I. Harris, Dylan R. Memmott, Christopher J. Peterson, Randolph V. Lewis, Justin A. Jones

Biological Engineering Faculty Publications

Although synthetic spider silk has impressive potential as a biomaterial, endotoxin contamination of the spider silk proteins is a concern, regardless of the production method. The purpose of this research was to establish a standardized method to either remove or destroy the endotoxins present in synthetic spider silk proteins, such that the endotoxin level was consistently equal to or less than 0.25 EU/mL, the FDA limit for similar implant materials. Although dry heat is generally the preferred method for endotoxin destruction, heating the silk proteins to the necessary temperatures led to compromised mechanical properties in the resultant materials. In light …

Regium Bonds Between Mn Clusters (M=Cu,Ag,Au And N=2-6) And Nucleophiles Nh3 And Hcn, Wiktor Zierkiewicz, Mariusz Michalczyk, Steve Scheiner

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

The most stable geometries of the coinagemetal (or regium) atom (Cu, Ag, Au) clusters Mn for n up to 6 are all planar, and adopt the lowest possible spin multiplicity. Clusters with even numbers of M atoms are thus singlets, while those with odd n are open-shell doublets. Examination of the molecular electrostatic potential (MEP) of each cluster provides strong indications of the most likely site of attack by an approaching nucleophile, generally one of two positions. A nucleophile (NH3 or HCN) most favorably approaches one particular M atom of each cluster, rather than a bond midpoint or face. In …

Comparison Of Motor Skill Learning, Grip Strength And Memory Recall On Land And In Chest-Deep Water, Eadric Bressel, Michiel N. Vakula, Youngwook Kim, David A.E. Bolton, Chris J. Dakin

Kinesiology and Health Science Faculty Publications

Immersion in chest-deep water may augment explicit memory in healthy adults however, there is limited information on how this environment might affect implicit memory or motor learning. The purpose of this study was to compare the speed and accuracy for learning a motor skill on land and in chest-deep water. Verbal word recall and grip strength were included to gain a more complete understanding of the intervention. Sixty-two younger adults (age = 23.3 ± 3.59 yrs.) were randomly assigned to either a water group immersed to the xiphoid or a land group. Participants in both groups completed the same eight …

Early Events In Japanese Encephalitis Virus Infection: Viral Entry, Sang-Im Yun, Young-Min Lee

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Japanese encephalitis virus (JEV), a mosquito-borne zoonotic flavivirus, is an enveloped positive-strand RNA virus that can cause a spectrum of clinical manifestations, ranging from mild febrile illness to severe neuroinvasive disease. Today, several killed and live vaccines are available in different parts of the globe for use in humans to prevent JEV-induced diseases, yet no antivirals are available to treat JEV-associated diseases. Despite the progress made in vaccine research and development, JEV is still a major public health problem in southern, eastern, and southeastern Asia, as well as northern Oceania, with the potential to become an emerging global pathogen. In …

Role Of Nucleotide Identity In Effective Crispr Target Escape Mutations, Tim Künne, Yifan Zhu, Fausia Da Silva, Nico Konstantinides, Rebecca E. Mckenzie, Ryan N. Jackson, Stan J.J. Brouns

Chemistry and Biochemistry Faculty Publications

Prokaryotes use primed CRISPR adaptation to update their memory bank of spacers against invading genetic elements that have escaped CRISPR interference through mutations in their protospacer target site. We previously observed a trend that nucleotide-dependent mismatches between crRNA and the protospacer strongly influence the efficiency of primed CRISPR adaptation. Here we show that guanine-substitutions in the target strand of the protospacer are highly detrimental to CRISPR interference and interference-dependent priming, while cytosine-substitutions are more readily tolerated. Furthermore, we show that this effect is based on strongly decreased binding affinity of the effector complex Cascade for guanine-mismatched targets, while cytosine-mismatched targets …

Functional Genomics And Immunologic Tools: The Impact Of Viral And Host Genetic Variations On The Outcome Of Zika Virus Infection, Sang-Im Yun, Byung-Hak Song, Jordan C. Frank, Justin G. Julander, Aaron L. Olsen, Irina A. Polejaeva, Christopher J. Davies, Kenneth L. White, Young-Min Lee

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Zika virus (ZIKV) causes no-to-mild symptoms or severe neurological disorders. To investigate the importance of viral and host genetic variations in determining ZIKV infection outcomes, we created three full-length infectious cDNA clones as bacterial artificial chromosomes for each of three spatiotemporally distinct and genetically divergent ZIKVs: MR-766 (Uganda, 1947), P6-740 (Malaysia, 1966), and PRVABC-59 (Puerto Rico, 2015). Using the three molecularly cloned ZIKVs, together with 13 ZIKV region-specific polyclonal antibodies covering nearly the entire viral protein-coding region, we made three conceptual advances: (i) We created a comprehensive genome-wide portrait of ZIKV gene products and their related species, with several previously …

Groundwater Flow And Exchange Across The Land Surface Explain Carbon Export Patterns In Continuous Permafrost Watersheds, Bethany T. Neilson, M. Bayani Cardenas, Michael T. O'Connor, Mitchell T. Rasmussen, Tyler V. King, George W. Kling

Civil and Environmental Engineering Faculty Publications

Groundwater flow regimes in the seasonally thawed soils in areas of continuous permafrost are relatively unknown despite their potential role in delivering water, carbon, and nutrients to streams. Using numerical groundwater flow models informed by observations from a headwater catchment in arctic Alaska, United States, we identify several mechanisms that result in substantial surface‐subsurface water exchanges across the land surface during downslope transport and create a primary control on dissolved organic carbon loading to streams and rivers. The models indicate that surface water flowing downslope has a substantial groundwater component due to rapid surface‐subsurface exchanges across a range of hydrologic …

Usu Engineering Student Awarded Prestigious Academic Fellowship, Usu College Of Engineering

College of Engineering News

USU’s Darcie Christensen is one of 31 engineering students nationwide — and the only person in Utah — to receive a 2018–19 Tau Beta Pi Honor Society academic fellowship.

Are Killer Bees Good For Coffee? The Contribution Of A Paper's Title And Other Factors To Its Future Citations, Mark J. Costello, Karen H. Beard, Richard B. Primack, Vincent Devictor, Amanda E. Bates

Ecology Center Publications

How can the title of a paper affect its subsequent number of citations? We compared the citation rate of 5941 papers published in the journal Biological Conservation from 1968 to 2012 in relation to: paper length; title length; number of authors; paper age; presence of punctuation (colons, commas or question marks); geographic and taxonomic breadth; the word ‘method’; and the type of manuscript (article, review). The total number of citations increased in more recently published papers and thus we corrected citation rate (average number of citations per year since publication) by publication age. As expected, review papers had, on average, …

Advancing Technology For Nasa Science With Small Spacecraft, Michael Seablom, Florence Tan, Charles Norton, And Daniel Moses, Lawrence Kepko

Small Satellite Conference

NASA’s Science Mission Directorate (SMD) is strategically promoting the use of small spacecraft to advance its science portfolio. Related to this effort are an increasing number of targeted investments in instrument- and platform-based technologies, which are critical for achieving successful science missions with small spacecraft. Beginning in 2012, SMD’s technology programs began to accommodate the use of CubeSats for validation of new science instruments. Since that time the Directorate has expanded the use of CubeSats and small satellites not only for validating instruments for future, conventional-class missions but also to enable a new class of focused science missions that fill …

Microsats And Moby Dick: Microsatellite Support To Whale Science And Conservation, Matt Bille, Rachel Dendiu, Kirk Borne, Laurie Baker, Steve Brune, Ian Byrnes, Chris Round

Small Satellite Conference

Scientists who study the 92 species of whales and dolphins (aka cetaceans) know that many populations are endangered. There may be only 12 vaquita porpoises left, and the ~450 North Atlantic Right whales are being decimated by ship collisions and fishing gear. Conservation efforts rely on implanted radio tags and satellite transponders to track cetaceans in 1.3 billion cubic kilometers of ocean. These efforts, however, are handicapped by technology and the limits of available satellite support. Leading cetologists surveyed in Booz Allen Hamilton’s Project WHALES (Whale/Habitat and Location/Environment Smallsats) agreed there are simply not enough tracking assets in space. The …

Adept, A Mechanically Deployable Re-Entry Vehicle System, Enabling Interplanetary Cubesat And Small Satellite Missions, Alan Cassell, Brandon Smith, Paul Wercinski, Shakib Ghassemieh, Kenneth Hibbard, Adam Nelessen, James Cutts

Small Satellite Conference

There is growing interest for utilizing Small Satellites beyond low Earth orbit. A number of secondary CubeSat payload missions are planned at Mars, cis-Lunar Space, near Earth objects, and moons of the Gas Giants. Use of smaller systems may enable utilization of otherwise unused capacity of larger “host” missions. Development of re-entry systems that leverage and accommodate Small Satellite technology will substantially expand the range of mission applications by offering the capability for high speed entry or aerocapture at destinations with atmospheres. Deployable entry vehicles (DEVs) offer benefits over traditional rigid aeroshells including volume, mass and payload form factor. The …

Social Dimensions Of Urban Flood Experience, Exposure, And Concern, Rebecca L. Hale, Courtney Flint, Douglas B. Jackson-Smith, Joanna Endter-Wada

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

With growing urban populations and climate change, urban flooding is an important global issue, even in dryland regions. Flood risk assessments are usually used to identify vulnerable locations and populations, flooding experience patterns, or levels of concern about flooding, but rarely are all of these approaches combined. Furthermore, the social dynamics of flood concerns, exposure, and experience are underexplored. We combined geographic and survey data on household‐level measures of flood experience, concern, and exposure in Utah's urbanizing Wasatch Front. We asked: (1) Are socially vulnerable groups more likely to be exposed to flood risk? (2) How common are flooding experiences …

Climatically Driven Changes In Primary Production Propagate Through Trophic Levels, David C. Stoner, Joseph O. Sexton, David M. Choate, Jyoteshwar Nagol, Heather H. Bernales, Steven A. Sims, Kirsten E. Ironside, Kathleen M. Longshore, Thomas C. Edwards Jr.

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Climate and land‐use change are the major drivers of global biodiversity loss. Their effects are particularly acute for wide‐ranging consumers, but little is known about how these factors interact to affect the abundance of large carnivores and their herbivore prey. We analyzed population densities of a primary and secondary consumer (mule deer, Odocoileus hemionus, and mountain lion, Puma concolor) across a climatic gradient in western North America by combining satellite‐based maps of plant productivity with estimates of animal abundance and foraging area derived from Global Positioning Systems telemetry data (GPS). Mule deer density exhibited a positive, linear relationship with plant …

Alternative Launch Funding For Student Nanosatellite Missions, Katie Gwozdecky, Stephen Dodge

Small Satellite Conference

Amateur aerospace projects are becoming commonplace in Canada including those developing small satellites. The greatest hurdle for teams developing these is often acquiring funding to launch. Current methods include crowdfunding and high volume corporate donation. The University of Toronto Aerospace Team’s Space Systems Division succeeded with an alternative: student levy funding. UTAT-SS passed a referendum to raise over $400,000 Canadian Dollars to fund the launch of the UTAT-SS nanosatellite, HERON Mk II. These funds may kickstart a launch program at the University, the first of its kind in Canada. This levy charges students $2.77 per semester, renewable every two years. …

Tsat4: A Modular 3u Cubesat Characterizing Anabaena Cylindrica In Low Earth Orbit, Matthew Driedger, Morgan Taverner, Valorie Platero

Small Satellite Conference

TSAT4 is the fourth iteration of the University of Manitoba Space Applications and Technology Society’s 3U nanosatellite design with a decentralized modular systems architecture that supports a biological payload. The payload tests the effects of exposure to a low earth orbit (LEO) environment on the growth cycle of Anabaena cylindrica bacteria. In addition to providing a potential base tropic layer for more advanced biological experiments, Anabaena cylindrica has shown potential for use in bioreactors for spacecraft life support and food production. As such, detailed characterization of how their lifecycle is affected by the LEO environment will be an important factor …

Natural And Managed Watersheds Show Similar Responses To Recent Climate Change, Darren L. Ficklin, John T. Abatzoglou, Scott M. Robeson, Sarah E. Null, Jason H. Knouft

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Changes in climate are driving an intensification of the hydrologic cycle and leading to alterations of natural streamflow regimes. Human disturbances such as dams, land-cover change, and water diversions are thought to obscure climate signals in hydrologic systems. As a result, most studies of changing hydroclimatic conditions are limited to areas with natural streamflow. Here, we compare trends in observed streamflow from natural and human-modified watersheds in the United States and Canada for the 1981–2015 water years to evaluate whether comparable responses to climate change are present in both systems. We find that patterns and magnitudes of trends in median …

The Thinsat Program: Flight Opportunities For Education, Research And Industry, Robert Twiggs, Aaron Zucherman, Emily Bujold, Nick Counts, Christopher Colman, Jose Garcia, Andrew Diddle, Polina Zhirkina

Small Satellite Conference

The ThinSat is the next iteration of the flight proven PocketQube design. The ThinSat standard is based on a common bus architecture with set electrical and mechanical interfaces that simplifies the development of diverse payloads. The bus design includes power, C&DH, communication systems and has options for attitude control and determination. Participants in the program need only provide systems that conform to the available documented bus design. Virginia Commercial Space Flight Authority (Virginia Space) has secured payload capacity on the second stage of future Orbital ATK Antares rockets launched from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport at NASA Wallops Flight Facility in …

Low-Tech Riparian And Wet Meadow Restoration Increases Vegetation Productivity And Resilience Across Semiarid Rangelands, Nicholas L. Silverman, Brady W. Allred, John Patrick Donnelly, Teresa B. Chapman, Jeremy D. Maestas, Joseph Michael Wheaton, Jeff White, David E. Naugle

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Restoration of riparian and wet meadow ecosystems in semiarid rangelands of the western United States is a high priority given their ecological and hydrological importance in the region. However, traditional restoration approaches are often intensive and costly, limiting the extent over which they can be applied. Practitioners are increasingly trying new restoration techniques that are more cost‐effective, less intensive, and can more practically scale up to the scope of degradation. Unfortunately, practitioners typically lack resources to undertake outcome‐based evaluations necessary to judge the efficacy of these techniques. In this study, we use freely available, satellite remote sensing to explore changes …

Gw-Sat: Gw's First Satellite With Propulsive 3-Axis-Stabilization, Jonathan Kolbeck, Michael Keidar

Small Satellite Conference

The George Washington University’s proposed satellite mission, GW-Sat, was one of the 34 missions selected by NASA as part of the CubeSat Launch Initiative program. The CubeSat will be built entirely by students from different departments and schools at the university. GW-Sat is a 3 U CubeSat and its primary mission is to validate its propulsion system based on in-house built Micro-Cathode Arc Thrusters. The thrusters will be used to provide the spacecraft with 3-axis stabilization and the ability to perform station-keeping maneuvers, and therefore, increase the mission’s lifetime. In addition to this, the CubeSat will be used to perform …

Predators Shape Sedimentary Organic Carbon Storage In A Coral Reef Ecosystem, Trisha Brooke Atwood, Elizabeth M. P. Madin, Alastair R. Harborne, Edd Hammill, Osmar J. Luiz, Quinn R. Ollivier, Chris M. Roelfsema, Peter I. Macreadie, Catherine E. Lovelock

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Trophic cascade theory predicts that predator effects should extend to influence carbon cycling in ecosystems. Yet, there has been little empirical evidence in natural ecosystems to support this hypothesis. Here, we use a naturally-occurring trophic cascade to provide evidence that predators help protect sedimentary organic carbon stocks in coral reef ecosystems. Our results show that predation risk altered the behavior of herbivorous fish, whereby it constrained grazing to areas close to the refuge of the patch reefs. Macroalgae growing in “riskier” areas further away from the reef were released from grazing pressure, which subsequently promoted carbon accumulation in the sediments …

Alaskan Marine Transgressions Record Out-Of-Phase Arctic Ocean Glaciation During The Last Interglacial, Louise Farquharson, Daniel Mann, Tammy M. Rittenour, Pamela Groves, Guido Grosse, Benjamin Jones

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Ongoing climate change focuses attention on the Arctic cryosphere’s responses to past and future climate states. Although it is now recognized the Arctic Ocean Basin was covered by ice sheets and their associated floating ice shelves several times during the Late Pleistocene, the timing and extent of these polar ice sheets remain uncertain. Here we relate a relict barrier-island system on the Beaufort Sea coast of northern Alaska to the isostatic effects of a previously unrecognized ice shelf grounded on the adjacent continental shelf. A new suite of optically stimulated luminescence dates show that this barrier system formed during one …

Immunogenicity And Protection After Vaccination With A Modified Vaccinia Virus Ankara-Vectored Yellow Fever Vaccine In The Hamster Model, Justin G. Julander, Marco Testori, Cédric Cheminay, Ariane Volkmann

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

The highly efficacious live-attenuated 17D yellow fever (YF) vaccine is occasionally associated with rare life-threatening adverse events. Modified vaccinia virus Ankara (MVA), a non-replicating poxvirus, has been used as a vaccine platform to safely deliver various antigens. A MVA-based YF vaccine (MVA-BN-YF) was tested with and without a non-mineral oil adjuvant in a hamster model of lethal YF disease and protective efficacy of this vaccine was compared with the 17D vaccine. The vaccine candidate MVA-BN-YF generated a protective response in hamsters infected with YFV that was comparable to protection by the live 17D vaccine. Similar levels of neutralizing antibody were …

The Absolutist Monarch In Taïa's Le Jour Du Roi And Laroui's "Tu N'As Rien Compris À Hassan Ii": Probing The Limitations Of Reader Reception Theory, Christa Jones

Languages, Philosophy, and Communication Studies Faculty Publications

This article discusses the representation of the monarch in Abdellah Taïa’s novel Le Jour du Roi (2010) and Fouad Laroui’s “Tu n’as rien compris à Hassan II” (2004), focusing on the act of reading and the historical context of Hassan II’s reign. A close reading of Taïa’s novel and Laroui’s short story will reveal narrative strategies used to fictionalize sovereignty. Laroui uses humor and irony to criticize the regime of Hassan II, while Taïa uses oneiric elements to capture the arbitrary nature of monarchy and the notion of absolute royal power as theorized by Achille Mbembe. Both writers criticize Hassan …

Commuter Rail And The Landscape: Alternative Futures For Planning In Southeastern Box Elder County, C. Michael Gottfredson

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

This thesis analyzes the impact the FrontRunner commuter-rail service would have on Southeastern Box Elder County, Utah, using both anticipated future and alternative future scenarios created in a geographic information system (GIS). These alternative future scenarios include having the FrontRunner developed at anticipated stops and a transit-oriented development (TOD) scenario. Using techniques and methods developed by scholars in the bioregional planning field, these alternative future scenarios were compared against impact-data models addressing residential land-use suitability and landscape risk.

Outcomes: from this analysis, the TOD alternative future scenario had the least impact on landscape risk impact-data model. The TOD model …