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The Utah Statesman, September 25, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Shallow Composition And Structure Of The Upper Part Of The Exhumed San Gabriel Fault, California: Implications For Fault Processes, Kaitlyn Crouch, James P. Evans

Geosciences Faculty Publications

Quantifying shallow fault zone structure and characteristics is critical for accurately modeling the complex mechanical behavior of earthquakes as energy moves within faults from depth. We examine macro- to microstructures, mineralogy, and properties from drill core analyses of fault-related rocks in the steeply plunging ALT-B2 geotechnical borehole (total depth of 493 m) across the San Gabriel Fault zone, California. We use macroscopic drill core and outcrop-sample analyses, core-based damage estimates, optical microscopy, and X-ray diffraction mineralogic analyses to determine the fault zone structure, deformation mechanisms, and alteration patterns of exhumed deformed rocks formed in a section of the fault that …

Measuring The Phytochemical Richness Of Meat: Effects Of Grass/Grain Finishing Systems And Grapeseed Extract Supplementation On The Fatty Acid And Phytochemical Content Of Beef, Lucas Krusinski, Isabella C. F. Maciel, Stephan Van Vliet, Muhammad Ahsin, Guanqi Lu, Jason E. Rowntree, Jenifer I. Fenton

Nutrition, Dietetics, and Food Sciences Faculty Publications

Grass-finished beef (GFB) can provide beneficial bioactive compounds to healthy diets, including omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (n-3 PUFAs), conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), and secondary bioactive compounds, such as phytochemicals. The objective of this study was to compare fatty acids (FAs), micronutrients, and phytochemicals of beef fed a biodiverse pasture (GRASS), a total mixed ration (GRAIN), or a total mixed ration with 5% grapeseed extract (GRAPE). This was a two-year study involving fifty-four Red Angus steers (n = 54). GFB contained higher levels of n-3 PUFAs, vitamin E, iron, zinc, stachydrine, hippuric acid, citric acid, and succinic …

Long-Term Herbivore Removal Experiments Reveal How Geese And Reindeer Shape Vegetation And Ecosystem Co2-Fluxes In High-Arctic Tundra, Matteo Petit Bon, Brage B. Hansen, Maarten J. J. E. Loonen, Alessandro Petraglia, Kari Anne Bråthen, Hanna Böhner, Kate Layton-Matthews, Karen H. Beard, Mathilde Le Moullec, Ingibjörg S. Jónsdóttir, René Van Der Wal

Wildland Resources Faculty Publications

1. Given the current rates of climate change, with associated shifts in herbivore population densities, understanding the role of different herbivores in ecosystem functioning is critical for predicting ecosystem responses. Here, we examined how migratory geese and resident, non-migratory reindeer—two dominating yet functionally contrasting herbivores—control vegetation and ecosystem processes in rapidly warming Arctic tundra.

2. We collected vegetation and ecosystem carbon (C) flux data at peak plant growing season in the two longest running, fully replicated herbivore removal experiments found in high-Arctic Svalbard. Experiments had been set up independently in wet habitat utilised by barnacle geese Branta leucopsis in summer and in …

A First Look Into Software Security Practices In Bangladesh, Ankit Shrestha, Tanusree Sharma, Pratyasha Saha, Syed Ishtiaque Ahmed, Mahdi Nasrullah Al-Ameen

Computer Science Student Research

Software security practices are critical in minimizing vulnerabilities and protecting unauthorized access to the code and the system. However, software security practices outside Western countries need to be better understood. This need for understanding security practices is further necessitated by the increased outsourcing of software development that can result in vulnerabilities on a global scale. This article addresses this gap, focusing on Bangladesh, a country that represents a booming software industry in the Global South. In this study, we conducted semi-structured interviews with 15 developers to understand their security perceptions and identify the factors influencing software security practices in Bangladesh. …

Heterochronic Serum Proteins, Jeffrey Mason

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Mechanism of ovarian-dependent enhancement of health and longevity in postreproductive female mice

Development And Initial Validation Of Scales For Coming Out Vigilance And Positive Coming Out Responses, Samuel J. Skidmore, G. Tyler Lefevor, Kiet D. Huynh, Connor O. Berg

Psychology Faculty Publications

Coming out involves sexual and gender minorities (SGMs) disclosing their identity to others, and is often related to improved health, well-being, and social support. However, coming out is not always perceived as a positive event, and outcomes of identity disclosure may vary depending on how coming out is approached and how others respond. The present study reports on the development and validation of the Coming Out Vigilance (COV) and the Positive Coming Out Responses (PCOR) measures. Two subsamples of SGMs with varying degrees of outness— totaling 399 individuals—were utilized in the development and validation of these measures. Exploratory and confirmatory …

Faculty Senate Committee Minutes September 5, 2023, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Call to Order - Maureen Hearns
• Approval of Minutes - May 1, 2023
• University Business - President Cantwell and Provost Smith
• Faculty Senate Business
• Information - Faculty Senate Committee Assignments and Periodic College Reporting
• Reports - Empowering Teaching Excellence Annual Report
• Old Business - Committee on Committee Nominations and Task Force Updates
• New Business - Faculty Code 405
• Adjourn 4:16 pm

Rising Coastal Groundwater As A Result Of Sea-Level Rise Will Influence Contaminated Coastal Sites And Underground Infrastructure, K. Hill, D. Hirschfeld, C. Lindquist, F. Cook, S. Warner

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Sea-level rise (SLR) will cause coastal groundwater to rise in many coastal urban environments. Inundation of contaminated soils by groundwater rise (GWR) will alter the physical, biological, and geochemical conditions that influence the fate and transport of existing contaminants. These transformed products can be more toxic and/or more mobile under future conditions driven by SLR and GWR. We reviewed the vulnerability of contaminated sites to GWR in a US national database and in a case comparison with the San Francisco Bay region to estimate the risk of rising groundwater to human and ecosystem health. The results show that 326 sites …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Minutes September 18, 2023, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• Call to Order - Maureen Hearns
• Approval of Minutes - August 21, 2023
• University Business - President Cantwell and Provost Smith
• Faculty Senate Business
• Information - Educational Policies Committee, Academic Standards Subcommittee, and Human Resource Policies
• Reports - Educational Policies Committee Annual Report and Honors Program Annual Report
• Old Business - Update on Divestment Task Force and Greenhouse Waste Emissions
• New Business - Issue of Faculty Concern
• Adjourn 4:40 pm

Dietary Patterns Of Children From The Amazon Region Of Ecuador: A Descriptive, Qualitative Investigation, Kristin N. Murphy, Lisa Boyce, Eduardo Ortiz, Marcela Santos, Gloria Balseca

Human Development and Family Studies Faculty Publications

Many young children in Ecuador suffer from high rates of malnutrition and stunting that affect their long-term growth and development. Little is known about the dietary patterns of children from the Amazon region who experience some of the highest rates of stunting (height-for-age) within Ecuador. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 50 mothers of young children living in the Ecuadorian Amazon. In addition to descriptions of overall dietary patterns, three themes emerged from the interviews relating to strengths mothers have in feeding their children healthy diets: knowledge, autonomous and independent children, and supportive and responsive parenting. Five themes were found relating …

Faculty Senate Executive Committee Agenda September 18, 2023, Utah State University

Faculty Senate & Faculty Senate Executive Committee

• 3:30 Call to Order
• Approval of Minutes - August 21, 2023
• 3:35 University Business
• 3:50 Faculty Senate Business .
• 4:00 Information
• Education Policies Committee
• Human Resources Policies - 351
• 4:20 Reports
• Educational Policies Committee Annual Report
• Honors Program Annual Report
• 4:30 Old Business
• Update on Divestment Task Force
• Greenhouse Waste Emissions
• 4:40 New Business
• Issue of Faculty Concern
• Adjourn:

The Utah Statesman, September 18, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Making Hay While The Sun Shines: Answering The Urgency In Audiovisual Preservation, Benjamin Harry

Journal of Western Archives

Many twentieth-century audiovisual formats are becoming obsolete and/or the physical carriers are deteriorating, warranting the need to digitize this content as soon as possible. Balancing efficiency and urgency with digitization and digital storage resources is a challenging endeavor. This article documents the efforts of the L. Tom Perry Special Collections (LTPSC) at Brigham Young University to begin a systematic effort to digitize audiovisual content found in manuscript collections.

Evapotranspiration And Precipitation Data For Calculating Irrigation Requirements In Utah, Shital Poudyal, Anju Chaudhary

All Current Publications

Reference evapotranspiration (ETo) and precipitation data are essential for developing water budgets and calculating irrigation water requirements. However, it is crucial that the data used for such purposes are recent and easily accessible to stakeholders. In this fact sheet, we calculated average reference evapotranspiration and precipitation data for multiple locations in Utah, USA. To accomplish this, we collected the data from the Utah Climate Center and compiled it to show an average of 20 years of data by month in an easily digestible format. We compiled data for 69 locations in Utah, making it easy to find one close to …

A Novel Fuzzy Relative-Position-Coding Transformer For Breast Cancer Diagnosis Using Ultrasonography, Yanhui Guo, Ruquan Jiang, Xin Gu, Heng-Da Cheng, Harish Garg

Computer Science Faculty and Staff Publications

Breast cancer is a leading cause of death in women worldwide, and early detection is crucial for successful treatment. Computer-aided diagnosis (CAD) systems have been developed to assist doctors in identifying breast cancer on ultrasound images. In this paper, we propose a novel fuzzy relative-position-coding (FRPC) Transformer to classify breast ultrasound (BUS) images for breast cancer diagnosis. The proposed FRPC Transformer utilizes the self-attention mechanism of Transformer networks combined with fuzzy relative-position-coding to capture global and local features of the BUS images. The performance of the proposed method is evaluated on one benchmark dataset and compared with those obtained by …

Sudden Oak Death And Ramorum Blight, Marion Murray, Ann Mull

All Current Publications

Sudden oak death (SOD) and ramorum blight are caused by Phytophthora ramorum, a non-native water mold (oomycete) that originates from parts of Asia. Sudden oak death was given its name due to the appearance that entire trees were dying in just 2 to 4 weeks. In reality, the disease progresses over an extended period, estimated at more than 2 years after initial infection. Ramorum blight is nonlethal, typically causing foliar browning and wilting. This fact sheet discusses impact, damage and symptoms, plant hosts, disease cycle, and management.

Curriculum Subcommittee Minutes September 7, 2023, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes – April 6, 2023
• Program Proposals

• Semester Course Approval Reviews: https://usu.curriculog.com/

• Other Business

• Adjourn: 2:55 pm

The Utah Statesman, September 11, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Demographic Data In The Built Environment And Human Health Studies, Huaqing Wang, Louis G. Tassinary

Landscape Architecture and Environmental Planning Faculty Publications

Demographic data is widely used in both built environment and population health studies. Traditional data sources include national, state, and local surveys as well as archived data from longitudinal studies and newly emerging sources such as digitally accessible administrative data and real-time data from mobile devices. The value of these diverse data sets hinges on their accuracy, completeness, reliability, relevance, and timeliness. This chapter reviews the literature published in this field, provides a selective overview of the extant published research based on such data, and offers suggestions for the continuing access and use of such datasets.

General Education Minutes 2023-09-07, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Call to Order - Matt Sanders
• Course Approvals/Removals/Syllabi Approvals
• New Business - Welcome and Introductions, Academic Year General Education Schedule Deadlines, New R470 Changes and Upcoming USU Decisions, and Depth Courses and Second Majors
• Additional Items - next meeting on October 5, 2023
• Adjourn: 9:30 am

An Improved Digestion And Analysis Procedure For Silicon In Plant Tissue, Noah James Langenfeld, Bruce Bugbee

Plants, Soils, and Climate Faculty Publications

Silicon (Si) in plant tissues reduces abiotic and biotic stress, but it is incorporated as silica (SiO₂), which is difficult to solubilize for analysis. We modified an oven-induced tissue-digestion and analysis method to improve Si solubilization and validated its accuracy by quantifying the mass-balance recovery of Si from the hydroponic solution and plant tissues of cucumber (Cucumis sativus). Leaf, stem, and root tissues were dried, finely-ground, and digested in 12.5 molar sodium hydroxide at 95°C for 4 hours. Solutions were then acidified with 6 molar hydrochloric acid to achieve a pH below 2 for measurement of …

General Education Agenda 2023-9-7, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Call to Order - Matt Sanders
• Approval of Minutes
• Course Approvals/Removals/Syllabi Approvals
• New Business - Welcome and Intros, Academic Year Gen Ed Schedule and Deadlines, Review of Area Subcommittee Guidelines, New R470 Changes and Upcoming USU Decisions, Depth Courses and Second Majors
• Additional Items - next meeting October 5, 2023
• Adjourn

Educational Policies Committee Minutes September 7, 2023, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Approval of Minutes - April 6, 2023
• Subcommittee Reports - Curriculum Subcommittee by Chad Simon, course approvals, requests from departments, Academic Standards Subcommittee by Renee Galliher, minutes from April 13, 2023 academic grievance proposal/draft, General Education Subcommittee by Matt Sanders, minutes from March 21, 2023 discussion of R470 policy
• Other Business - graduate school grievance process, new baccalaureate programs template, cross/dual listed info for the EPC Handbook, minimum GPA requirements, BYU Idaho and Western Governor's 90-credit bachelor's degree
• Adjourn: 4:05 pm

Educational Policies Committee Agenda September 7, 2023, Utah State University

Educational Policies Committee

• Subcommittee Reports

• Curriculum Subcommittee (Chad Simon)

• Academic Standards Subcommittee (Renee Galliher)

• General Education Subcommittee (Matt Sanders)

• Other Business

Assessing Capacity In Rural Nonprofits, Jayme Walters, Aaron R. Brown, Dorothy Wallis, Janice Snow

Social Work Faculty Publications

Organizational capacity is necessary for nonprofits to meet their missions and contribute to society. Less is known about rural nonprofits’ organizational capacity and characteristics, as most research focuses on urban nonprofits. The present study first considers the utility of an organizational capacity assessment and identifies pertinent areas of organizational capacity in rural nonprofits. The second objective of the study is to examine relationships between areas of organizational capacity and organizational-level characteristics. In May 2019, nonprofits (n = 290) from persistently poor, rural counties in 14 southern states participated in a survey providing organizational characteristics and assessing organizational capacity. An …

Technology Acceptance Model(Tam) And Ai Hallucination Survey Dataset, Jared Hansen, Jeff Christensen, Paul Wilson

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This dataset came from the research paper “Understanding the antecedents, advantages, and mistakes of technology adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) within consumers’ tourism decision-making processes” coauthored by the researchers. The project examines the integration of elements from the technology acceptance model, theory of planned behavior, and three new variables (AI prior general usage, AI familiarity, and AI hallucination potential) to prediction behavioural intention to use AI (ChatGPT) in making future tourism decisions.

The Utah Statesman, September 4, 2023, Utah State University

The Utah Statesman

Weekly student newspaper of Utah State University in Logan.

Cache Code Math Mathematics Lesson Plans: Exponents And Repeats, Jody Clarke-Midura, Jessica Shumway, Kimberly Beck, Umar Shehzad, Mimi Recker

Instructional resources

This document contains four 5th grade mathematics lesson plans. The activities are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the computer lab activities found in Cache Code Math Computer Lab Lesson Plans: Repeated Addition & Multiplication. The mathematical focus of these lessons is conceptualizing exponents as repeated multiplications fractions.

Cache Code Math Computer Lab Lesson Plans: Repeated Addition & Multiplication, Jody Clarke-Midura, Jessica Shumway, Kimberly Beck, Umar Shehzad, Mimi Recker

Instructional resources

This document entails a number of computer lab concepts and accompanying activities for fifth grade students. The activities are intended to be implemented in conjunction with the mathematics lessons "Cache Code Math September Unit: Repeats in Math and Programming" and "Cache Code Math Computer Lab Lesson Plans: Exponents and Repeats". Here the mathematics concepts of repeated addition and multiplication are explored using the computer coding concept of repeat loop blocks.