Digital Commons Network^™

Fruit Production And Opportunities For Growers In Utah, Makaylie Langford, Kynda R. Curtis

All Current Publications

This fact sheet discusses the state of the fruit industry in Utah, its impact on the Utah economy, as well as current challenges the fruit industry faces and opportunities for fruit growers moving forward. These challenges and opportunities underscore the importance of fruit to the state’s economy, as growers navigate urbanization, competition, and consumer preferences for locally grown produce. Fostering collaboration between consumers and growers will ensure a commitment to local agriculture and community support.

Fruit Consumption Indicators: Who Consumes More Fruit In Utah?, Makaylie Langford, Kynda R. Curtis

All Current Publications

This fact sheet discusses fruit consumption patterns in Utah, exploring the key demographic and socioeconomic factors linked to increased fruit intake. Fruit growers and marketers can use this information to design effective promotional campaigns targeting consumers more likely to purchase fruit and fruit products.

Utah Fruit Growers Assessment Results Overview, Makaylie Langford, Kynda R. Curtis

All Current Publications

Fruit growers throughout Utah manage operations of varying sizes and sell their fruit products fresh or processed through various direct-to-consumer and wholesale markets. In early winter 2023, researchers conducted an online survey via Qualtrics to better understand the fruit products under production, current marketing methods, grower concerns, and future business interests. This fact sheet provides an overview of the survey results.

Pocket Gophers, Mark Nelson, S. Nicole Frey, Earl Creech, Kalen Taylor, Jacob Hadfield, Linden Greenhalgh, Cory Farnsworth, Jody Gale, Melanie Heaton, Justin Wyatt Clawson, Steve Price

All Current Publications

Pocket gophers can damage agriculture and human development infrastructure. In agricultural fields, pocket gophers cause conflicts by directly consuming plants, destroying plants when their soil mounds cover them, and causing premature loss of field stands such as alfalfa, necessitating expensive alfalfa stand replacement. They can chew through electrical, internet, and other utility cables, damaging irrigation pipes, and compromising the integrity of canals and ditch banks. They also cause significant damage to lawns and gardens in urban areas. Understanding pocket gopher habits, especially the burrow system, is the key to effective control. Management methods include trapping, hand or mechanical baiting, fumigation, …

The Utah Statesman, July 29, 2024, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Cap-And-Trade Carbon Pricing In Utah: Challenges And Potential Impact, Katherine Michaels, Kendall Becker, Alexi Elizabeth Lamm, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Cap-and-trade programs are a market-based form of carbon pricing that allows companies to trade with each other using carbon credits. Carbon credits function as permission slips to emit a certain amount of carbon. The “cap” establishes the number of carbon credits an industry or region has available for trading. Companies are incentivized to emit less because they can sell their excess carbon credits to other companies. Several cap-and-trade programs exist in the United States, and these programs are effectively reducing carbon emissions while creating net economic benefits for their regions. A cap-and-trade program could help Utah reduce carbon emissions in …

Ocean Temperatures Do Not Account For A Record-Setting Winter In The U.S. West, Matthew D. Laplante, Liping Deng, Luthiene Dalanhese, Shih-Yu Wang

Journalism and Communication Faculty Publications

The record-setting winter of 2022–2023 came as an answer to both figurative and literal prayers for political leaders, policy makers, and water managers reliant on snowpacks in the Upper Colorado River Basin, a vital source of water for tens of millions of people across the Western United States. But this “drought-busting” winter was not well-predicted, in part because while interannual patterns of tropical ocean temperatures have a well-known relationship to precipitation patterns across much of the American West, the Upper Colorado is part of a liminal region where these connections tend to be comparatively weak. Using historical sea surface temperature …

The Memory-Keeping Daughter: Exploring Object Stories And Family Legacies From America's Modern Wars, Susan R. Grayzel

History Faculty Publications

This essay demonstrates how wartime objects can have a special resonance in families as keepers of memory, and it especially explores the role of daughters of military participants in preserving the artifacts of their veteran fathers. Using several case studies from a recent public history project collecting objects and object stories in the American southwest, it argues that a focus on daughters as caretakers of family military history offers a new way to engage with descendants' histories by showing how the work of such women can contribute to our understanding of modern war and its legacies.

Effects Of Premortem Stress On Protein Expression, Steak Color, Oxidation, And Myofibrillar Fragmentation Index In The Longissimus Lumborum, Reganne K. Briggs, Jerrad F. Legako, Paul R. Broadway, Jeff A. Carroll, Nicole C. Burdick Sanchez, Nikole E. Ineck, Zachary K. Smith, Ranjith Ramanathan, Kara J. Thornton

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Impacts Of Climatic Fluctuations And Vegetation Greening On Regional Hydrological Processes: A Case Study In The Xiaoxinganling Mountains–Sanjiang Plain Region, Northeastern China, Chi Xu, Zhijie Zhang, Zhenghui Fu, Shenqing Xiong, Hao Chen, Wanchang Zhang, Shuhang Wang, Donghui Zhang, Heng Lu, Xia Jiang

Environment and Society Faculty Publications

The Xiaoxinganling Mountains–Sanjiang Plain region represents a crucial ecological security barrier for the Northeast China Plain and serves as a vital region for national grain production. Over the past two decades, the region has undergone numerous ecological restoration projects. Nevertheless, the combined impact of enhanced vegetation greening and global climate change on the regional hydrological cycle remains inadequately understood. This study employed the distributed hydrological model ESSI-3, reanalysis datasets, and multi-source satellite remote sensing data to quantitatively evaluate the influences of climate change and vegetation dynamics on regional hydrological processes. The study period spans from 2000 to 2020, during which …

Evaluating Mountain Lion Diet Before And After A Removal Of Feral Horses In A Semiarid Environment, Peter C. Iacono, Kathryn A. Schoenecker, Kezia R. Manlove, Pat J. Jackson, David C. Stoner

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Non-native species can affect ecosystems by influencing native predator-prey dynamics. Therefore, management interventions designed to remove non-natives may inadvertently lead to increased predation on native species. Feral horses are widely distributed throughout the arid parts of western North America. A growing body of research indicates that horses can be an important prey species to mountain lions in ecosystems where they overlap. In December 2020, the Bureau of Land Management removed 455 horses from the Delamar Mountains, Nevada, USA. We leveraged this management intervention to implement a before–after–control–impact study to test hypotheses about predation on horses and native ungulates. We predicted …

Development And Validation Of The Identity Negotiation Experiences And Strategies Scale, Renee V. Galliher, Joshua G. Parmenter, Lee Pradell, Theo Klimstra

Psychology Faculty Publications

A rich theoretical and empirical literature captures experiences of identity conflict and tension at the nexus of identity domains that feel incompatible. The Identity Negotiation Experiences and Strategies (INES) scale was developed to provide a quantitative tool for capturing experiences of identity strain or conflict, and strategies for responding to or managing strain. Focus groups with college students from the United States, the Netherlands, and Finland were used to develop a pool of items capturing students' identity negotiation experiences. Subsequently, two college student samples from the United States and the Netherlands were used to refine the scale and assess psychometric …

Accuracy And Effectiveness Of An Orchestration Tool On Instructors' Interventions And Groups' Collaboration, Luettamae Lawrence, Emma Mercier, Taylor Tucker Parks, Nigel Bosch, Luc Paquette

Instructional Technology and Learning Sciences Faculty Publications

This paper presents the development of a novel orchestration tool that predicts collaborative problem-solving (CPS) behaviors of undergraduate engineering groups and investigates the use of that tool by instructors. We explore the impact of receiving real-time, machine-learning, model-based prompts on 1) instructors' orchestration strategies, which are strategies instructors use to manage and facilitate collaborative activities, and 2) groups' participation, including how groups are engaged in CPS activities. The orchestration tool is a dashboard that notifies instructors of–and advises them on–monitoring and intervening with groups who may need collaborative support and guidance. We describe the accuracy of the models in predicting …

Psychosocial Treatment Of Trichotillomania: A Review, Leila K. Capel, Mercedes G. Woolley, Michael P. Twohig

Psychology Student Research

Trichotillomania can be an impactful disorder, yet compared to a multitude of diagnoses, intervention research on trichotillomania is notably underdeveloped. There have been a variety of treatments developed for trichotillomania, including habit reversal training (HRT), ACT-enhanced behavior therapy (A-EBT), dialectical behavior therapy (DBT), enhanced cognitive behavioral therapy, comprehensive behavioral treatment (ComB), metacognitive therapy (MCT), and decoupling. Papers synthesizing the data on psychosocial interventions for trichotillomania are needed to assist professionals in choosing the most supported options for their work. Articles were retrieved through EBSCOhost through engines like PsycInfo, PsycArticles, and PubMed. Articles were selected if they were testing a psychosocial …

What Juab County Leaders And Residents Can Do To Strengthen The Impact Of Girls And Women In Their Area, Deborah Lin, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

This idea sheet is based on a 2024 gathering of leaders in Juab County, with input from 20 individuals. Girls and women face challenges unique to the area in which they live, and the goal of this gathering was to identify those barriers and determine strategies and initiatives that local leaders and residents can implement to address them. This document includes recommendations in the following areas: home and family, education, business and economics, community, and culture.

Collaborative Knowledge Braiding For Restoration: Assessing Climate Change Risks And Adaptation Options At Wuda Ogwa In Southeastern Idaho, United States, Sofia Koutzoukis, Will Munger, Lindsay Capito, Darren Parry, Brad Parry, Sarah C. Klain, Mark W. Brunson, Nancy Huntly, Travis Taylor

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

The restoration of culturally significant landscapes poses formidable challenges given more than 160 years of settler-colonial land use change and a rapidly changing climate. A novel approach to these challenges braids Indigenous and western scientific knowledge. This case study braids Indigenous plant knowledge, species distribution models (SDMs), and climate models to inform restoration of the Bear River Massacre site in Idaho, now stewarded by the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation. MaxEnt SDMs were used to project the future spatial distribution of culturally significant plant species under medium (SSP2-4.5) and high (SSP5-8.5) emissions scenarios. These results support Tribal revegetation priorities …

Modulation Of The Pacific Meridional Mode On The Dipole Pattern Of The Conus Summertime Precipitation, Grace Affram, Wei Zhang, Vittal Hari, Si Gao, Cody Ratterman, Langfeng Zhu, Robert R. Gillies

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Historically, the precipitation trend over the past few decades in the Contiguous United States (CONUS) exhibits a "Dry-West Wet-East" pattern; this is manifested by recent droughts/floods in the western/eastern US. However, it remains elusive what atmospheric phenomenon has potentially driven such a remarkable, and impactful precipitation pattern. Here we found that a coupled climate mode—the Pacific Meridional Mode (PMM) exerted strong impacts on the precipitation pattern over the CONUS during the summer season. We discovered a significant association between the PMM index and precipitation across the majority of the CONUS; this was manifested as a zonal dipole pattern—negative correlations in …

High Overlap Of Fungi Across The Range Of Douglas-Fir, James A. Lutz, Joseph D. Birch

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Results of research in forest health and forest futures in Utah

Expansive Framing Of Mathematics And Computer Science: Supporting Educators In Cross-Curricular Teaching, Kimberly Evagelatos Beck, Jessica F. Shumway, Patrick Ocran, Jody Clarke-Midura, Mimi Recker

Publications

Expansive Framing (EF) is a theory to explain transfer of learning and an instructional technique to facilitate transfer. We employed EF as an approach to create a series of integrated mathematics-computer science (CS) lesson plans and studied their implementation by teachers in two fifth-grade classrooms and a paraprofessional in one Computer Lab classroom. We used deductive theoretical qualitative analysis of transcripts of classroom implementations to investigate how educators used EF in their lessons. Findings suggested that educators most effectively engaged in EF principles when they were present in curricular materials. We recommend that mathematics-CS integrated curricular materials include framing language …

Examining The Role Of Parental Support On Youth's Interest In And Self-Efficacy Of Computer Programming, Umar Shehzad, Jody Clarke-Midura, Mimi Recker

Publications

Objectives. The increasing demand for computing skills has led to a rapid rise in the development of new computer science (CS) curricula, many with the goal of equitably broadening participation of underrepresented students in CS. While such initiatives are vital, factors outside of the school environment also play a role in influencing students' interests. In this paper, we examined the effects of students' perceived parental support on their interest in computer programming and explored the mechanisms through which this effect may have been established as students participated in an introductory CS instructional unit.

Participants. This instructional unit was …

Artificial Carbon Sequestration In Utah, Signee Storrud, Kendall Becker, Scott Hotaling

All Current Publications

Carbon dioxide is an important greenhouse gas that helps keep Earth warm and habitable. But since humans began burning large quantities of fossil fuels during the Industrial Revolution, there has been a rapid increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide from approximately 280 parts per million in 1750 to more than 420 parts per million in 2024. Natural carbon storage processes have been unable to keep up with humans’ carbon dioxide emissions, and the sudden rise in atmospheric carbon dioxide has led to rapid global warming and climate change. One climate adaptation tool that may help rebalance Earth’s carbon cycle is artificial …

Seed Mix Performance With Environmental Stressors And Invasion: Implications For Wetland Restoration, Maddie Houde, Karin Kettenring

Browse all Datasets

Seed-based revegetation is increasingly pursued in wetland restoration, but seed and seedling mortality is high and can be further limited by environmental stressors, like hydrology and salinity. The interactive effects of hydrology and salinity on native plants, especially in the presence of invasive plants, are less clear. In greenhouse and mesocosm experiments, we tested different hydrologic and salinity conditions on the growth of native seed mixes and Phragmites australis, a widespread wetland invader in North America. The greenhouse experiment tested two mixes (forb mix, graminoid mix), while mixes in the mesocosm experiment combined forbs and graminoids chosen for broad …

Please Don’T Break: Best Practices For Digitizing And Archiving Glass Plate Photographs, Ariel Hammond, Noelle Zocco, Alejandra Tomeo, Diego Jimenez

Journal of Western Archives

Glass plate photographs, taken primarily between 1860-1930, were meant to document and preserve imagery, however, these photographs developed directly on glass are increasingly prone to destruction. With recent advances in imaging techniques, metadata, and collections care, the preservation of glass photography has evolved. This paper is a snapshot of the current best practices for preserving, digitizing, and storing glass plate and lantern slide photographs. It also features a case study from the San Diego Natural History Museum Library & Archives, which digitized a collection of 2,000+ glass photographs depicting the earliest images of flora and fauna in San Diego County, …

Quaking Aspen In A High-Use Recreation Area: Challenges Of People, Ungulates, And Sodium On Landscape Resilience, Georgie Corkery, Anna B. Miller, Paul C. Rogers

Environment and Society Student Research

Quaking aspen (Populus tremuloides Michx.) landscapes are valued for their biodiversity, water retention, fire mitigation, aesthetics, and recreation opportunities. Across North America, some aspen populations are experiencing population declined as they face uninhibited ungulate browsing, drought, fire suppression, insects, disease, and inappropriate management. Increased human development and recreational use within aspen landscapes can serve as additive stressors, though there is a dearth of literature examining these elements. At a popular recreational area in Utah, USA, identifying the cause of apparent decline within a larger aspen community is complicated by development upstream and recreation-related activities. We sought to (1) assess …

Phylogenomics Recovers Multiple Origins Of Portable Case Making In Caddisflies (Insecta: Trichoptera), Nature's Underwater Architects, Paul B. Frandsen, Ralph W. Holzenthal, Marianne Espeland, Jesse Breinholt, Jessica A. Thomas Thorpe, Sabrina Simon, Akito Y. Kawahara, David Plotkin, Scott Hotaling, Yiyuan Li, C. Riley Nelson, Oliver Niehuis, Christoph Mayer, Lars Podsiadlowski, Alexander Donath, Bernhard Misof, Emily Moriarty Lemmon, Alan Lemmon, John C. Morse, Shanlin Liu, Steffen U. Pauls, Xin Zhou

Watershed Sciences Faculty Publications

Caddisflies (Trichoptera) are among the most diverse groups of freshwater animals with more than 16 000 describes species. They play a fundamental role in freshwater ecology and environmental engineering in streams, rivers and lakes. Because of this, they are frequently used as indicator organisms in biomonitoring programmes. Despite their importance, key questions concerning the evolutionary history of caddisflies, such as the timing and origin of larval case making, remain unanswered owing to the lack of a well-resolved phylogeny. Here, we estimated a phylogenetic tree using a combination of transcriptomes and targeted enrichment data for 207 species, representing 48 of 52 …

The Shell Tutor: An Intelligent Tutoring System For The Unix Command Shell And Git, Jaxton Winder, Erik Falor, Seth Poulsen, John Edwards

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

The command shell and Git are important tools for computer scientists to learn and is taught in many computer science curricula. Many tools used by computer scientists are primarily interfaced through the command shell, such as Git. However, there have been few studies and interventions designed to assist in understanding student behaviors in the command shell and better teaching of it. This paper aims to provide an overview and reflection of a novel intelligent tutoring system we developed, the Shell Tutor, which assists in teaching students the command shell and Git. This paper will also analyze features of this tool …

High Sugar Diet Alters Immune Function And The Gut Microbiome In Juvenile Green Iguanas (Iguana Iguana), Kwanho C. Ki, Erin L. Lewis, Elizabeth Wu, Francis J. Oliaro, Lise M. Aubry, Charles R. Knapp, Karen M. Kapheim, Dale Denardo, Susannah S. French

Biology Faculty Publications

The present work aimed to study whether a high sugar diet can alter immune responses and the gut microbiome in green iguanas. Thirty-six iguanas were split into four treatment groups using a 2x2 design. Iguanas received either a sugar-supplemented diet or a control diet, and either a lipopolysaccharide (LPS) injection or a phosphate-buffered saline (PBS) injection. Iguanas were given their respective diet treatment through the entire study (~3 months) and received a primary immune challenge 1 and 2 months into the experiment. Blood samples and cloacal swabs were taken at various points in the experiment and used to measure changes …

Expression And Secretion Of Sparc, Fgf-21 And Dcn In Bovine Muscle Cells: Effects Of Age And Differentiation, Katie A. Shira, Kara J. Thornton, Brenda M. Murdoch, Gabrielle M. Becker, Gwinyai E. Chibisa, Gordon K. Murdoch

Animal, Dairy, and Veterinary Science Faculty Publications

Skeletal muscle growth is an economically important trait in the cattle industry. Secreted muscle-derived proteins, referred to as myokines, have important roles in regulating the growth, metabolism, and health of skeletal muscle in human and biomedical research models. Accumulating evidence supports the importance of myokines in skeletal muscle and whole-body health, though little is known about the potential presence and functional significance of these proteins in cattle. This study evaluates and confirms that secreted proteins acidic and rich in cysteine (SPARC), fibroblast growth factor 21 (FGF-21), myostatin (MSTN), and decorin (DCN) are …

Unpaid Care Work Among Utah Women: A 2024 Update, Kristy Hodsen, Madison Harmer, Susan R. Madsen

Marketing and Strategy Faculty Publications

Unpaid work, including childcare, eldercare, housework, and other tasks, is vitally important to the foundations of strong families, communities, and nations; in fact, such domestic work has been called “the work that makes all other work possible.”¹ According to Oxfam, the monetary value of women’s unpaid work is estimated to be $10.8 trillion each year,² and women worldwide spend a significantly larger portion of time than men performing this critical work.³ This happens for many reasons, including personal values and choices, cultural and social norms, unconscious biases, and specific economic and employment considerations. Researchers and thought leaders …

Pursuit And Escape Drive Fine-Scale Movement Variation During Migration In A Temperate Alpine Ungulate, Christian John, Tal Avgar, Karl Rittger, Justine A. Smith, Logan W. Stephenson, Thomas R. Stephenson, Eric Post

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

Climate change reduces snowpack, advances snowmelt phenology, drives summer warming, alters growing season precipitation regimes, and consequently modifies vegetation phenology in mountain systems. Elevational migrants track spatial variation in seasonal plant growth by moving between ranges at different elevations during spring, so climate-driven vegetation change may disrupt historic benefits of migration. Elevational migrants can furthermore cope with short-term environmental variability by undertaking brief vertical movements to refugia when sudden adverse conditions arise. We uncover drivers of fine-scale vertical movement variation during upland migration in an endangered alpine specialist, Sierra Nevada bighorn sheep (Ovis canadensis sierrae) using a 20-year …